Consumer complaint received 2023-04-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: PA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
This event began on XX/XX/XXXX at approximately XXXXXXXX XXXX  It all started when a friend of mine was going to pay me for something that I got for him, food. He wanted to pay me in cash but I said no because I always lose the change. I suggested to him that he should download XXXX and pay me with XXXX but he said no. So I remembered that he had XXXX and I said XXXX owns XXXX so you have nothing to worry about as far as security. I said okay pay me with XXXX. XXXX does not charge any processing fees for payments between friends. I assumed, wrong, that XXXX would do the same. When he sent the money to me by his phone I was short changed about XXXX cents. It was processing charges. He offered to pay me the XXXX cents but I said no I would call up XXXX. I then proceeded to go on my phone and ask XXXX for a XXXX phone number to reverse fees. XXXX immediately, as it always does, brought me to a web page which had the number that I called. Except this number was not truly a XXXX number. It was the bad guys masking as XXXX. 
Continuing forward, this man who I shall call XXXX, was witness to all of this as I was at his house. He witnessed it all until approximately XXXX minutes after XXXX Eastern time that day. It was then that he left and I left to go home. I do not think that any damage was done at that time. Attempts were made however they failed possibly because the bad guys after I had downloaded on my XXXX  phone the app called any desk. They assured me that this was necessary to validate who I was. It was for their security as well as mine. The person I was talking to was very experienced. He had all the right answers to all of the questions before I asked them. I even complimented him at some time as to how good and how knowledgeable he was with XXXX. Now picture this of me now after having said the previous hitting my head with a hammer. A few times during our connection the connection broke and he said it was because of them having server problems. When a person downloads any desk and when it boots up the program assigns a XXXX digit code to the user. Unfortunately the next day after I had a visit from the investigating officer of the XXXX State Police, who did see this number, but neither he nor I had the awareness to take a screenshot and record the number. With technology as good as it is today I feel most certain that the software engineers of XXXX know that a transaction was being conducted through a third party software. That night I researched any desk and it is widely acclaimed as being the best software being used by professionals in the repair of computers and remote installations. This does not say that any desk is bad. It is primarily being used by the wrong people, the bad guys. I have screenshots of the time I spoke to them at both their XXXX supplied phone number and the number that I called back because they called me back when they lost the connection when my friend went to the dentist. I stayed at his driveway as they continued to work with me. They were very very good. They were very very professional and polished. I am not sure if we were still doing XXXX at the time. They had failed with XXXX where later they succeeded with XXXX. From my limited experience I think that XXXX XXXX or XXXX had better security. However during this time, unknown to me, and definitely not authorized by me there was another security breach. Through that program any desk applied for me a credit card from XXXX. It was closed within hours after I discovered through emails that it was live virtually that I believe by using a XXXX  reader I could initiate it. They also said, in the XXXX credit card email that a physical card was being shipped. When I did speak to XXXX credit card which is being authorized by XXXX XXXX they were most helpful. Evidently, these bad people have done this before. When I saw a credit card on my screen I asked where did this come from and the person I was speaking to said that it was only a dummy credit card. It is a place where we can transfer the money to verify you. It is only used for holding for a short period of time in order that we can be sure it's a secure transaction. It certainly sounded logical to me because these guys were good at security. The dummy was me for listening to them and believing. 
It is certainly safe to say that the above is or was identity theft. 

As they were not successful in using XXXX to verify me with their XXXX server they asked if I use XXXX. I said I have XXXX but I rarely use it. I then thought a little bit and realized that Bank of America had XXXX  available. First, I did not know my XXXX password combination for Bank of America and I was afraid that I may put down the wrong information and get locked out. They encourage me to give it my best shot as they are there to help me get my XXXX cents back. As I write this now I really feel like a dunce. Moving on as this form which I have presented to the CFPB is getting rather lengthy I was successful in getting the correct username password. Let me remind you, that on my telephone screen there was the app any desk and on the top of the app was the identifier of whom I was communicating with. And that showed it read the icon and lettering for the XXXX server. All of this would never have happened if XXXX did their homework and did not accept the phone numbers that were given to them by the bad guys. That phone number which was the toll free phone number has been given to the investigating officer with the XXXX  State Police. I even had him call the number when he was with me to see what would happen and it was dead. It actually became nonexistent of which I have proof to show through screenshots of my attempts to call it on my cell phone. The one time that it was going dead it actually answered something like a phone number not available XXXX. I was very surprised when I heard the name XXXX. It may be that XXXX supplies numbers for a fee to people to promote their advertising of which I am sure they make a substantial profit. So in my opinion XXXX is also responsible in my case for my problem. If they had researched the number before they had it presented they would have found that it was a scam. Just the fact that the bad guys requested {$990.00} the first time and then came back 2 minutes later and requested {$990.00} to be transferred to the same person or entity should have been a trigger for security at Bank of America XXXX. If you look at my records with XXXX I have only used it one time before and I think it was for under {$20.00} and I believe it was for my son. Having a request for two withdrawals within minutes, maybe seconds for almost the same amount of money in itself is strange. And I believe, and I am sure that you can find out, that requests under {$1000.00} are not aggressively checked for fraud. That's why those greedy guys try to get the u from their live catch. And I ask you why can not there be a cooling off period of at least 6 hours that a reversal could be done. These money transfer apps are designed for the fraudster. 

When I finally realized that I was duped I hung up on them. Immediately I was getting repeated return phone calls and I did not pick up but I can see their phone number on caller ID. I gave this phone number also to the investigating officer. I immediately drove to my house which was about XXXX mi away from where I was talking to them and the purpose for that was to call on a dedicated landline Bank of America. As if they were waiting for me when I called it went right to the fraud department. Bank of America knew that I was being duped. Yes I did not have to go through a menu put in my social security number or anything I was switched immediately to the fraud department. I immediately told them what had happened and I was amazed and I assumed, wrongfully so, that I could do something like a stop payment. They took my information down and even as I was talking to them they were still trying to call my home phone number which I had given to them in case we got disconnected. That of course, was before I realized that this was not XXXX servers. I have right on the internet that this has been going on with any desk and XXXX servers. It should be easy to follow the money and where it went to and to enforce the laws which we already have about fraudulent activity and possibly money laundering. I implore you the CFPB to listen to the senators XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX and senator XXXX and do what is necessary to prevent all the theft which is happening because of inadequate security on the XXXX  platform. 
Thank you

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