Consumer complaint received 2022-12-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On Tuesday XX/XX/22 at XXXX I received a text message to my phone from this number ( XXXX ) XXXX. The text message read, " BANK OF AMERICA FRAUD EARLY WARNING : Did you attempt {$200.00} ( declined ). at XXXX, XXXX, FL if valid reply YES, if fraud NO. To Opt Out, STOP. '' I replied NO to the text. Immediately after I received multiple phone calls from the number ( XXXX ) XXXX. I declined two times, because it seemed suspicious and then they called again and was worried I was missing an important call from Bank of America. I answered the third time and a man on the line claimed he worked for BOA XXXX XXXX. He gave his name, BOA ID number and the location where he was calling from. I should mention the week prior I had fraudulent charges to XXXX made from my debit card. This all happened the day the I got my new debit card in the mail so I was very nervous that my card information or account information was leaked which is also why I felt the need to answer the call and get this taken care of. The man who called me claiming to be from BOA spoke to me about the XXXX charge and told me it was declined, he then asked if I was recently trying to make XXXX transfer to someone named XXXX XXXX for {$2200.00} I said absolutely not. He told me that the XXXX transaction was already in process and approved, but that he could get the transaction reversed for me. I said of course and assumed he was helping me. He told me he was in communication with the XXXX fraud line at the same time he was helping me out. He asked me to read off the codes that were sent to my phone from BOA and that's how I assume he was able to log into my account. The codes were sent from the number : XXXX. At the end of the conversation he told me he filed a claim with the XXXX XXXX department and to change my BOA account password. He also told me the money would come out of my checking account balance, but not to worry as it would be sent back as soon as the claim was approved by XXXX. I changed my account password and user ID. I then logged in the next day and saw the money was out of the account. Under my recent transactions was a XXXX money transfer to a man named, XXXX XXXX. It included his E-mail which is XXXX and it also included a confirmation number : XXXX. I decided to the call the BOA number on the back of my debit card to check on the claim status and that's when I was told by an actual BOA employee that a file was never claimed and the phone call was a scam. I then filed a real fraud XXXX claim with BOA. I was told it could take up to 45 days to reach a decision about whether I will receive the funds back into my account. I am extremely upset by this as this was done right before XXXX and I am currently 8 months pregnant and about to start maternity leave. I was saving that money for when I am out of work. The man never asked me to XXXX himself or any company so it didn't seem like a scam to me and I was already nervous because of the fraudulent activity that happened with my debit card a week prior. I assumed he was getting the money back that I thought I already lost.

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