Consumer complaint received 2022-12-24
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Because of an issue with my phone and XXXX, I checked my bank account on XX/XX/XXXX. At that time I found out my account that had a prior balance of approximately {$110000.00} had been emptied on XX/XX/XXXX in a series of five withdrawals for very large amounts- {$60000.00}, {$30000.00}, and so on. I've been with this bank for 30 years and have never made withdrawals anything like this. I contacted the bank and asked why I was not notified and how this was possible. They had no explanation, froze my account but left it open so they could investigate and the funds could be returned. They insisted I file a police report since the theft was so large. I spent several hours with a policeman who came to my house and viewed my bank records on my computer. The bank said they would restore the money provisionally in 10 days and the investigation would take 45 days. Please note during this process my call was transferred multiple times and dropped multiple times so I had to start over. I had to take off work and spend several hours on this. I had no access to my funds or way to pay bills and had to borrow money just for bills and daily expenses. I wrote a letter to the Bank XXXX explaining my situation. A few days later XXXX on the XXXX XXXX XXXX called and told me she would investigate and get back to me. She never did. I called her several times and she never responded. I received a form letter from the bank president saying they valued my XXXX relationship with the bank and were sorry they hadn't met my expectations. My money was eventually returned. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I went into a bank branch to have all the funds in my account WIRE TRANSFERRED to a new account at XXXX XXXX and have this account closed. This was done by the branch manager. I was given a receipt for the Wire Transfer. I was told the money would be at XXXX XXXX within a few business days. Five business days later I looked at my XXXX XXXX account and there were no funds. I called the branch manager to find out what was going on but received no response. 

On XX/XX/XXXX with the help of my identity theft representative from XXXX XXXX XXXX, we spent approximately 3 hours on the phone with various departments of the bank. We were told the amount of {$120000.00} was agent assisted transferred to a DDA fraud account. It was a co-ownership account in the name of XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX is the name of the fraudster who took the money out in the first place. We were told a case would be opened, the account would be reopened for the funds to be returned, then I would have to call in to unfreeze the account to have the funds WIRE TRANSFERRED to the XXXX XXXXXXXX account. 

We called the bank again on XX/XX/XXXX and spent over an hour speaking with 3 different people in 3 different departments before the bank dropped the call. Despite having my cell phone number, as they'd used it to verify my identity, they never called back. 

Please help me figure out how to get my funds returned and then transferred to XXXX XXXX. I DO NOT expect to have to pay any fees. This debacle taken approximately 20 hours of my time.

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