Consumer complaint received 2021-10-18
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from my mother 's caregiver that they received a call that morning from " XXXX '' that she would be disconnected from her water and power unless payment was made immediately. My mother is XXXX year old and can not go without AC in 100 degree weather so I wanted to act quickly and see if I could pay a minimum amount over the phone to avoid disruption to her service. I went ahead and called the number provided for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX Ext. XXXX. When I called this number it seemed very legitimate- it identified as XXXX and had options and prompts that was just kilt the normal XXXX call center. I connected with XXXX XXXX and I told him I was calling on behalf of my mother, XXXX  XXXX, and wanted to pay the minimum amount due to avoid her being disconnected. He said that they would accept payment of {$500.00} to be made at one of their kiosks today and unfortunately they could not accept credit card payment because of 48 hours processing and it being a holiday weekend ( XXXX XXXX  XXXX ). I told him I could not go to a kiosk because I was at work and he said that he would find out from his billing supervisor if they could possible accept a wire transfer. After a couple of minutes he came back on the line and said they could make an exception and I could XXXX his billing supervisor and that once I made the payment and received confirmation that I should provide him the confirmation number and he would make note in their system.He gave me the name of his supervisor : XXXX XXXX at XXXX. I processed $ XXXXto him via XXXX and provided the confirmation number. Then he said it did not go through and that I needed to speak to another manager to see what the issue was - he transferred me to " XXXX '' who said that {$500.00} was to accurate and that I needed to pay the full balance of {$990.00} ( at this point I knew something was really off because I knew my mother had a much larger balance ). I made an excuse to buy time and told XXXX that I need to put him on hold to reboot my internet because I was having issues with my internet. during that time I XXXX  XXXX scam and realized this was happening to me- I called Bank of America customer service and explained what was happening and they advised me to immediately hang up with the scammers. I put B of A on hold and got back on the line with the scammers- I explained to them that I couldn't make payment at this time with the internet issues and could I call them back and they said no, it had to be done now. This is when I hung up with them and went back on the line to talk with B of A and file a formal report. They told me that the transfer already went through and could not be cancelled. They said they would open a claim and see if they could reimburse me. They said I opened up claim # XXXX. They said I should be hearing back within 30 days. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from B of A saying that they would not approve my claim because I authorized the XXXX transaction. I called that day and spoke to XXXX who said not to worry, even though B of A didn't reimburse me that they would try and collect it from the financial institution that the money was transferred to and that it would take 1-5 business days to investigate with their bank. From XX/XX/XXXX to today, XX/XX/XXXX I have been following up every couple of weeks with no resolve, I finally confirmed today when I spoke to XXXX at B of A that they made a decision last Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX that they were not able to get the other institution to pay so they were closing this claim. I am very frustrated because I found out they did not pursue the other bank until at least 2 weeks after the incident. I am sure at that point the scammers would have closed that account well before then. Also to note, I had tried to reach out to XXXX directly on the date the incident occurred and they said they were not responsible and then they pointed me to B of A. I also had filed claim with the FTC on XX/XX/21 and they recommended that I reach out to CFPB.

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