Consumer complaint received 2020-06-03
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
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:
I work for XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA. On XX/XX/2020, I went to work in the morning to complete a long list of tasks. Around XXXX  time or slightly after XXXX  time, a scammer called my wife cloning my phone number. As such my wife saw the call was coming from my phone but the voice was not mine. The caller ( scammer ), who mentioned his name as XXXX XXXX, told my wife, Your husband is under arrest and in a XXXX  now. Your husband gave me his phone set to call you and inform you his about request to you to take necessary action for saving his life. Hearing that, my wife became totally nervous and totally lost her judgmental ability. She asked the caller How can I get my husband back to me alive. 

The caller told my wife, You have come out of your home, with your credit cards, to the XXXX XXXX XXXX nearby ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX ) and then I will tell you. If you delay in doing so or contact anybody else, you will hear the sound of bullet taking your husbands life. I will remain on phone with you all along never try to disconnect. 

My wife requested the caller to allow her to say just hello to her husband ( me ), but the caller replied, If you say or request anything other than doing what I am asking to do, you will say hello to the dead body of your husband. So, come to the nearby XXXX without any delay. My wife said, I do not drive,  and I do not have car. The caller said, Take an XXXX without any delay. Losing her mind totally, my wife took an XXXX and reached the nearby XXXX. The caller was on phone with my wife all along. Once my wife reached XXXX, the caller said, buy 10 XXXX Gift Cards with a value of {$500.00} each, {$5000.00} total. My wife was hesitant to act, the caller forced her threatening, your husbands life will be over in a minute. Having totally losing mind and reaching extreme nervousness, my wife bought 10 XXXX Gift Cards  with a value of {$500.00} each, {$5000.00} total using our Bank of America Visa Cash Reward Credit Card ; the Bank of Americas Transaction Ref # XXXX. Once bought, the caller asked my wife to scratch each of those 10 Gift Cards and read to him out the numbers, and my wife did that being tremendously forced by the caller. Here are the numbers of those 10 gift cards : 1. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 2. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 3. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 4. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 5. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 6. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 7. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 8. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 9. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) 10. XXXX ( Access # XXXX ) After this, the caller forced my wife to come another XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX ) taking another XXXX. 

It was around XXXX XXXX  or so, I came back home and found my wife was not home which scared me terribly because she never gets out of home without me, and in few past instances she fell down on the floor, could not sit or stand without my help. I searched every place within our home and failed to find her. Then I called her phone and XXXX  numbers both, but answer was my wife is on another call. That meant, the caller/scammer kept her phone occupied. Then I sent a text asking, where are you? to both phone and XXXX. Having my text, my wife realized she was trapped by a Fraud Group, and she called me back. I noticed she was totally nervous and could be fainting any moment. Meanwhile, my wife had already given the information about first {$5000.00} ( {$500.00} x 10 = {$5000.00} ) XXXX   Gift Cards, and was in an XXXX on the way to another XXXX in XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX ) as forced by the caller/scammer. I advised her to get out of the XXXX at a place near to the XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX Intersection and she did that. I picked her up from there and came home together. She roughly described incident to me with terribly crying. 

I immediately called the local police, filed this criminal incident report and received, a Police Case #  XXXX. Then I called, the Bank of America ( my Credit Card Company ) and reported that the {$5000.00} transaction ( Bank of Americas Transaction Ref # XXXX ; attached Bank of America_Account Activity-1 ), that happened hours ago ( on XX/XX/2020 ) at the XXXX XXXX XXXX located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX, was a fraudulent transaction and I described the incidence, but the officer said she did not all details to file a fraud claim. The bank initially issued a {$5000.00} credit back to our account on XX/XX/2020 ( attached Bank of America_Account Activity-1 and Fraud Claim Letter ( 1 ) _XX/XX/XXXX ), but the issued credit was later taken away on XX/XX/2020 ( attached Bank of America_Account Activity-2 and Fraud Claim Letter ( 2 ) _XXXX ) citing that the fraud claim was resolved and it was determined that the transaction was not a fraudulent one.

I again called the Bank of America and I was denied by several departments to allow me to file an appeal, but eventually one department listened to the detail description of the whole incident, possibly recorded it, and took my appeal for another round of investigation, which has a Billing Dispute/Fraud Case # XXXX. The employee/officer named Ms. XXXX. filed my appeal ( Case #  XXXX ) for further investigation named. 

Before I ended up with Ms. XXXX to file my appeal for further investigation, I had to go through several other Bank of America officers, at least two of them strongly advised me submit a Credit Card Fraud case with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau under Federal Trade Commission. Therefore, I am filing this Credit Card Fraud case for getting help. 

We are in a very stressful financial situation. My wife has been a XXXX failure patient with on-going medical expenditure for a long time. This undue {$5000.00} financial burden has been ruining our physical and XXXX XXXX with a lot of XXXX  and XXXX. We have a great confidence that your department will help us to get rid of this {$5000.00} charge to us by Bank of America. We will be gratefully obliged to the anticipated help with a positive resolution in favor of us, because we are innocent in this incidence.

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