Consumer complaint received 2022-09-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
Complaint against Bank of America On XX/XX/XXXX I was contacted by an official DHS number informing me that I was the main subject of a money laundering operation and that my profession as an anti-money laundering analyst strengthened their suspicion. I would later come to find that these individuals were not whom they said they were a defrauded me for over {$25000.00}. While on the call a number from XXXX Texas Police Department came through which the fake DHS rep told me to answer as they were 'working with local law enforcement '. The local police number confirmed what the DHS rep had told me and when I was skeptical of their claims they then e-mailed me an XXXX XXXX with instructions of how to handle the situation while under investigation. This included putting my funds into pay vouchers to avoid my funds being frozen which would be returned to me at the end of the investigation period if I was found to be innocent. The next 2 days consisted of them surveilling me and forcing me to convert my funds into pay vouchers via XXXX as well as the majority of my credit limit on my cards so a potential perpetrator would not be able to do so themselves. XXXX, they said, is one of the companies whom law enforcement has an arrangement with for these circumstances and would allow for me to be refunded. As I continued to grow frustrated with the process I contacted XXXX Police Department on XX/XX/XXXX around XXXX directly and asked for XXXX XXXX whom the fraudster claimed to be, and I was told there was no XXXX XXXX and that I would need to contact XXXX Police Department to inform. 

I spoke with police on XX/XX/XXXX and they walked me through what I needed to do to try and mitigate the situation the best I could and also contacted Target to alert. On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a police report, contacted the financial institutions which were impacted to report fraud, canceled cards, changed user names & passwords etc. 

My complaint is specifically for Bank of America whom I initially contacted on XX/XX/XXXX to report fraud. They made me inform 3 different departments of fraud for my checking account, Debit Card and Credit Cards. I was told that the process would take a week and they would reach out to discuss next steps. A week passed and I heard nothing back. I checked the other financial institutions I contacted to report fraud and they had all refunded charges and issued me new credit cards, except for Bank of America. 

I then contacted Bank of America again on XX/XX/XXXX for a status update and checking/debit departments said that there was no update, but they would expedite to a 48-hour update window ( which I still haven't heard back from as of XX/XX/XXXX ), and then transferred me to the credit card department to see if there was a status update there. 

The credit card department then said I never filed a fraud case ( blatantly incorrect ) but yet also said they determined it wasn't fraud somehow. They then backtracked to say they did see that I called in to notify, but even though I was deceived and defrauded ( which by legal definition is fraud ), I would not receive any credit back. I then asked how have they left my 2 credit card accounts I filed fraud on and requested new cards wide open for 3 weeks and they said it was a mistake and they would do that immediately which they have still not done. 

Lastly, after I had been defrauded for every penny I have and an additional {$13000.00} in credit charges Bank of America refuses to forgive, I had to sell my only vehicle just so I could eat and pay bills. Upon deposit of the check from selling my vehicle, Bank of America only cleared 40 % of the check inexplicably leaving 60 % of the check on hold. The check was deposited on XX/XX/XXXX and is still not cleared. This also needs to be resolved.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief