Consumer complaint received 2020-02-26
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX, MA, and I am filing a complaint against Bank of America for their fraudulently depositing a {$2500.00} check written out of my Attorney XXXX   account at XXXX XXXX  to a fraudulent account without any endorsement on the check and, despite five ( 5 ) months of my bank 's repeated attempts to get a response from BofA for a refund under proper  procedures, we have received ZERO response and have been stonewalled by BofA again and again. Because the intended recipient of the check is threatening to sue me for not getting paid, I have had to pay {$2500.00} out of my own funds for a fraud that was perpetrated ON me with Bank of America as the guilty party. 

Please find attached a timeline of relevant events : XX/XX/XXXX : We held a closing here at our law firm and wrote checks on this date to disburse funds to the various parties ( tax payments, recording fees, title insurance policy seller 's attorney 's legal fee, etc ). Checks were mailed in check envelopes from our office ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX MA XXXX XXXX on or within a few days of that date. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Check # XXXX made out to XXXX XXXX XXXX cleared my XXXX account. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Check # XXXX made out to XXXX XXXX XXXX  cleared my XXXX account. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX : I received a call and then email from XXXX XXXX XXXX, the intended recipient of the {$2500.00} legal fee for seller 's attorney XXXX check # XXXX ) that they were having difficulty locating the funds. I logged in to my account, printed a copy of the cleared check, sent it to XXXX XXXX, and confirmed with my bank, XXXX XXXX, that the check had in fact cleared my account even though the back did not appear to be endorsed. 

XXXX : On this day, I received a phone call from Attorney XXXX XXXX of XXXX XXXX demanding that I send him further information and threatening me that he would report me to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX if he didn't have certain information within the hour. 

I again called my bank to try to get as much information as possible. At this point, my bank notified me that check # XXXX was deposited to Bank of America on XX/XX/XXXX with the routing number XXXX. The intended recipient does not have a Bank of America account, which is what alerted us to the potential of fraud. On this date, I filed a Check Affidavit with my bank, XXXX XXXX, and they began a bank to bank inquiry with BofA. At this point, the check was being treated as " Missing Endorsement or Improper Endorsement. '' XX/XX/XXXX : I spoke with XXXX XXXX  to check in on progress of the investigation and was informed that Bank of America received the refund request and BofA is investigating. My bank told me I would be notified once my bank receives word from BofA. Unfortunately, BofA does not give a time frame. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I checked in with XXXX XXXX  again and received a letter confirming that the refund request/investigation had been initiated in early XXXX and that I would be notified when BofA issued the refund. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I escalated to management at XXXX XXXX and received an update from a manager in Deposit Operations that the case has been transferred from Research/Adjustment group at BOA to Check Fraud Department at BOA. The manager had spoken to Bof A this day after waiting on hold for 90 minutes. 

XXXX : I received an email from another intended recipient of a check from the same closing ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) inquiring about check # XXXX for {$1900.00}. I immediately sent them a copy of the cleared check ( it cleared my account on XX/XX/XXXX ). After inquiring further at my bank, I was informed that the check was deposited to a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, account # XXXX. The intended recipient confirmed that they do NOT have an account with that bank, and alerted me that we have a fraud issue. 

I immediately called my bank, filed a new Check Affidavit for check # XXXX and have a conversation with the AVP of Deposit Operations about what steps to take. It became clear at this point that someone had fraudulently intercepted the same pile of mail from my XX/XX/XXXX closing. 

I include this XXXX XXXX check because it is notable that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX immediately acknowledged that they were at fault for allowing the check to be fraudulently deposited, and issued me a refund within the week. As I have stated, Bank of America has not only NOT issued a refund, but they refuse to respond to our complaint at all. 

XXXX : Had discussion with the AVP in Deposit Operations at my bank, XXXX XXXX, and he suggested at this point that I file a police report. I had to close my XXXX account and open a new one. I called XXXX PD and filed a report that day. 

From XXXX onward, both myself and my bank have spent hours and hours attempting to contact Bank of America. I waited on the phone for an hour and 12 minutes only to be told that the bank can not speak to me as an individual at all, and that my financial institution ( XXXX XXXX ) is the only entity who can file a claim and request for refund. At least weekly, members of my bank 's Deposit Operations department have attempted to contact BofA to file the claim. We are either hung up on or told that the paperwork has been sent to the wrong department. My bank has faxed the relevant complaint more than 10-15 times with ZERO response, and the email address we were recently given after an hour of hold time was an invalid address. 

Bank of America 's lack of accountability is egregious and appalling. I am at a complete loss for what to do, as Bank of America XXXXs legal department is as opaque as the rest of the organization. I am filing this complaint as an attempt to get BofA to rightfully respond to my bank 's refund request and take responsibility for allowing a fraudster to deposit a {$2500.00} check into a fraudulent account. 

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response. 

Kind regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX.

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