Consumer complaint received 2021-03-30
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was at work and when I went on my lunch I saw that I had a missed call and a voicemail was left from Bank of America. I listened to the voicemail and it said that there was unusual activity on my account and that I should call back. I called back, but was only told that my account was in the process of being closed and that was the only information that could be provided to me at the time. I was not able to log into my account to see any of these unusual activities that they said because they had froze my account. I called several times after this day trying to get information about my own account and what was going on. I was finally able to speak to someone who provided me with more details. They had told me that someone had called in, claiming to be me, to report an ATM claim. They said that they had told the bank that they had deposited an amount of {$4900.00} into an ATM, but was not credited that amount. The bank then instantly gave them a temporary credit of that amount, which they then withdrew immediately through XXXX XXXX XXXX transactions. the 1st transaction was of {$1100.00}. The 2nd transaction was of {$1900.00}. And the 3rd transaction was of {$1900.00}. When I was informed that someone called to make this claim, I immediately told them that that person was not me and that I never made a call about an ATM claim and never authorized anyone to make a call. Since I did not make that call, Bank of America removed the temporary credit that was given, but since the person who had called already made the apple cash payments, I was left with an overdraft fee of {$4900.00}, which I am now expected to pay the bank even though someone accessed my account and Bank of America did nothing to prevent this strange request. I have not had access to my account since XX/XX/XXXX. I originally only had about {$50.00} in my account which seems like Bank of America has used it towards that debt and has brought the amount down to {$4900.00}. I continued to call every couple of days to get more information and to speak to more people regarding my situation, but was told to call back after a couple of days each time to check for updates. I was then told to open a claim against the ATM claim, which I did. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Bank of America stating that the claim was closed and I owed the amount of {$4900.00}. I called once again for an explanation and was told the best thing to do is to file a police report and fax over the report to the research department. On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a police reported as I was instructed to do so by a Bank of America employee to reopen my claim and continue the investigation. A couple of days later, when I was able to, I took the document to a Bank of America in XXXX and asked them for assistance in faxing over my police report to the research team as I no longer had access to my account and could not submit my report through their online services. Even the representative that helped me found it hard to believe that Bank of America was making me pay this overdraft fee as she said it fits all of the criteria for fraud. I continued to call back every now and then to get updates on my claim, but it was extremely complicated and frustrating to navigate through the departments in Bank of America as I kept getting transferred to different departments and given several different claim numbers because every time I called they never knew what was going on and when I provide the claim number it would not exist or it had been given to me incorrectly. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I am completely running out of options and Bank of America has made it overly complicated to fight this fraud case. I received a letter in the mail today saying that my claim was completed and that the amount was still owed. Of course I called and once again, for 2 hours, I was transferred to several departments because no one knew what was going on. I have asked to listen to the phone call that they received when the ATM claim was made so that I can prove that it was not me who made this claim and was told they couldn't look back that far as it was in XXXX, but i have been asking for this since XXXX. I am so exhausted trying to fight Bank of America for accurate and helpful information about what is going on. This isn't right what they are doing. I even had to go out of my way to call XXXX to see if they could provide me with information regarding the apple cash payments and they could only tell me the amount that was sent using my card.

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