Consumer complaint received 2021-11-03
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
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:
On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I was at my home in XXXX, North Carolina when I received a notification from my Bank of America app asking me to review some suspicious charges. I saw these four charges from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : {$360.00} XXXX XXXX XXXX  : {$320.00} XXXX XXXX  and XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  : {$340.00} XXXX XXXX XXXX : {$35.00} Upon receiving this notice from the BoFa app and a phone call about potential fraudulent charges, I immediately denied the charges as fraudulent in the app and proceeded to call Bofa about the charges at XXXX ET, and again at XXXX ET. BofA acknowledged that charges were flagged as fraudulent my account number was changed immediately and my credit card deactivated. 

However, the following day ( Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX  ), the charges showed up on my credit card statement as Pending. Even though I had instantly tried to decline the charges as soon as they came through, BofA had allowed them to go through anyway. Confused, I called BofA at XXXX. The representative told me that charges take up to 90 days to resolve and that I would receive credit for fraudulent charges in the meantime. They also said that they couldnt do any investigating until charges had been posted. With the representative, we reviewed all 4 charges, and I made sure that the ones investigated were the correct, fraudulent ones. That night, temporary credits for SOME of the fraudulent charges showed up on my credit card statement ( the two XXXX XXXX XXXX  amounts, and the XXXX XXXX XXXX one ). 

On Friday XXXX, a refund from the XXXX charge comes through from the company associated with ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, not BofA ). That same day, the credits I received that Tuesday were revoked. BofA charged my credit card account again for the total sum of all the credit they had previously given me for the fraudulent claims. This was correct for XXXX XXXX XXXX as that company had refunded me, but absolutely incorrect for the XXXX XXXX XXXX  charges as they had not been resolved at all. I received a letter that day from BofA claiming that my disputes had all been closed and would receive no further review. 

I was infuriated ( still am ). On Saturday XXXX, I call again. After being on hold for almost an hour, a service representative comes on to tell me that the fraud claims office was closed for the weekend, but that one of the fraudulent charges I was disputing ( XXXX XXXX ) had never been flagged on their end as fraud. This was incredibly frustrating, as I had confirmed multiple times in each of my calls which charges were fraudulent including the XXXX XXXX one. I asked the representative to, once again, open a dispute on that charge on top of the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  ones. Additionally, I asked if there was anything I could provide or do to help prove that these charges were indeed fraudulent the BofA representative assured me that their team would handle the matter. 

The next Tuesday ( XXXX ), I called again. This time, the representative told me that there was no documentation from their fraud claims investigation team whatsoever, and that she had no idea why they'd dismissed my charges. She assured me that she would reopen the disputes. When I asked for temporary credit to cover all three of the outstanding fraudulent charges ( the two XXXX XXXX ones and the Heavenly one ), she said that they might take a few weeks to come through, but that I'd receive them. 

I only ever received temporary credit from BofA for the amount in the Heavenly charge I never got the credits for the two XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  charges. Nonetheless, I waited. 

Today, over a month after I first tried to decline these fraudulent charges, that credit for the Heavenly amount was once again revoked. I expect to receive a similar letter soon declaring that my disputes have been closed. Bank of America is purposefully dodging my fraudulent charge disputes, and is refusing to uphold their customer service promise of fraud protection. 

These charges are clearly fraudulent. The day they came through, I had been at work in North Carolina. Additionally, I had genuine charges ( spending activity ) in North Carolina both the Sunday beforehand and the very next day ( using my debit card, as my credit card had been deactivated and I would need to wait for a new one ). I also had NO history of spending that matched the pattern of activity the fraudulent spending followed ( hundreds of dollars at a mini mart?! ). This entire matter is extremely taxing on me, both monetarily and emotionally. Additionally, the accumulated pending charges are damaging my credit score, which could have long-term impacts completely out of my control. 

In total, the unresolved sum for all the fraudulent charges that BofA has refused to return to me is XXXX. 

XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX : {$360.00} XXXX XXXX XXXX : {$320.00} XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX  : {$340.00}

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