Consumer complaint received 2021-08-21
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
Hi, This is XXXX XXXX. I have Bank of America ( BoA ) accounts. This year in XXXX, my account ( checking and saving ) was accessed without my authorization and used to make {$2400.00} XXXX transfer to people I do not know. I did not lose my card so my accounts were actually remotely hacked. Then two months later in late XXXX, my BoA credit card was used to pay for two digital orders as gifts to people I do not know on XXXX. This time the total loss is about {$650.00}. Again I did not lose my card so it was my account that was hacked. I reported these two cases immediately to BoA after I noticed the fraud but BoA rejected both of my claims, based on the reason that " nothing is wrong with my account or we do not find a problem with the device used for the transaction ''.

I did check my computer and found that there were unauthorized remote access account. That means my computer was hacked. That is probably why everything looks fine at the end of BoA ( the hacker still used my computer to make those fraudulent transactions so BoA probably thinks it was me ). I think what may have happened is like this : I have the function called " save my password for this website '' enabled on my computer. I thought it is safe because this is my own computer. But somehow hackers gained remote access to my computer and automatically logged in to my online banking account since the passwords are saved in the browser. Then they made those fraudulent transactions. However, after I reported this situation to BoA, they requested me to submit an official certification that my computer is hacked. This is frankly impossible for me because 1 ) I deleted all unauthorized accounts immediately after I found them. So if you check my computer again now, it is safely guarded ; 2 ) It seems that BoA wants me to invite professional computer security personnel to thoroughly check my computer, but this would be too inconvenient and too expensive for me. 

All in all, when my accounts were hacked to make fradulent transactions, BoA rejected my fraud claims based on reasons that " my account looks normal ''. Compared to other cases such as losing the card, I have my devices by my hand but the device is remotely accessed without my permission. So on the surface my device and account would look normal but it is actually not. BoA clearly did not take this situation into consideration and put an unreasonable burden on customers to prove the existence of hacking activity. I even think that BoA deliberately develops such daunting procedures so that no customer would really pursue their claims under such situation. I am really disappointed with BoA and I will quit using it as a banking service, regardless of whether I can get my money back. I hope your esteemed agency can put some pressure on BoA so that they could at least reinvestigate my cases. 

Thanks, 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 explanation