Consumer complaint received 2021-11-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Card opened as result of identity theft or fraud

Complaint:
I received a letter in the mail from Bank of America stating that I had just recently applied for a " Bank of America Travel Rewards Visa Signature Card '' and since the person impersonating me had sent in 2 applications for the same card, Bank of America was sending the letter to inform me that the second application was going to be ignored, and that they would process the first application. The letter reference number is XXXX. I called Bank of America at XXXX and they transferred me to their fraud division at XXXX. I spoke with a representative named XXXX. I explained to XXXX that I had not applied for any credit cards through Bank of America or anywhere else and I provided personal information to him so he could validate my identity. He told me the applicant had an email address of " XXXX ''. I immediately knew that this was my stepmothers email address and she was trying to take out a credit card using my name and information. My father who is deceased and I had the same name and since I had a middle name and he did not we were never classified as senior and junior. Back in the late XXXX 's my step mother and he had put me in {$XXXX worth of fraudulent debt by taking out loans using my social security number. XXXX confirmed for me that my stepmother had used my social security number on her application for this card. The identity theft issues had become so bad in the early XXXX 's that when I got married in XXXX I actually did a legal name change through my local court system to take a different last name so that creditors could clearly see that my father and I were 2 separate people. In late XXXX my father and stepmother had gained access to my current mailing address and started having all of their casino gambling promotion literature sent to my mailing address, then I started to receive all of their IRS documents and filings to my mailing address. I suspected at that time that they were not declaring their casino winnings on their taxes and they were trying to make the IRS think I was the person they would want to track down if an audit was going to be needed. This was what prompted me to to do the legal name change. Since doing that name change I have not had any issues until now, however my father passed away 2 years ago and it appears that my stepmother is attempting to steal my identity by using my vital information to take a credit card out in my name for her use. XXXX with Bank of America  read off the vital information on the application and items like my phone number were out dated and no longer accurate, but it was information my stepmother last had regarding my vital info. Once XXXX told me the email address on the application I knew immediately it was my stepmother who had applied. After my phone conversation with XXXX he emailed me some information on how to report the fraud alert and report the fraud to the FTC. I have since called all three credit bureaus and placed a fraud alert on all there, and a credit freeze with XXXX since this was the bureau that bank of America uses to process applications. I will also be reporting this to the local Sherriff 's department today as well.

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