Consumer complaint received 2021-07-17
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 at approx XXXXXXXX XXXX PST, I received a call, on my personal cellphone ( XXXX ) from a Bank of America number, which I confirmed the number by calling it on a different phone. The person on the other line identified himself as an employee with B of A XXXX Payment Fraud dept and said that some attempted a XXXX payment for {$3000.00}, from a different IP address in FL and asked if I attempted this payment to a person name XXXX XXXX. I said no that I did not. Then he said that I needed to log into my B of A account, then send the payment to myself at my cellphone number so that XXXX XXXX XXXX  could stop the payment and issue a credit to B of A to stop the fraud transaction. He then sent me a text message, from a B of A line or from # XXXX with a XXXX Payment code and told me to enter that code into the payment so they could stop the fraud transaction. I completed the details as he told me, then I saw that the {$3000.00} was deducted from my account. Then I asked him when would the funds return back to my account and why was the amount not deducted, if someone supposedly attempted a fraud transaction. He then responded that they were blocking the payment by me logging into my acct. I completed the transaction, then called back B of A at the customer service number, and they said that I had been scammed. They filed a claim, but seem uncertain if the funds would be returned back to me because they said that unfortunately I authorized the payment from my account. I informed them that I did the payment because the caller said that they were called from B of A XXXX Fraud dept and they needed to process the payment so they could get the funds returned back from XXXX XXXX XXXX. I asked B of A could they issue a temporary credit to my account for the {$3000.00} because I had no more funds available in my account and they said that they could not return the funds to me because it was a cash transaction and that it was unfortunate. They did not seem to appear to want to assist with recovery of my lost funds due to this scam and that I trusted the caller to be an actual B of A employer. I am not sure if they will assist me with this and I have reported the scam with the Federal Trade Commission so I want to see what can be done to attempt to recover these funds back to me. The caller must have set up an account with XXXX XXXX XXXX  with my actual cellphone number ( XXXX ), then called me to step me through the process pretending that it was a fraud attempt for a payment to XXXX XXXX with XXXX XXXX, then had me process the payment to my cellphone, which I did not know it would go to a XXXX XXXX account as my cellphone number is only linked to my B of A account under XXXX. Well I tried to contact XXXX to file a claim and see if they could determine what other bank accounts were set up under my cellphone number and they were not helpful and said that this was not an issue for their company and that I had to file a claim with my bank, which I did. However, the imposter set up another bank account with XXXX XXXX, used my cellphone number to intercept the payment of {$3000.00} and XXXX would not provide the information to me as to what other accounts are linked to my cellphone number, which I tried to inform them that it was fraud conducted with my cellphone number. Both XXXX and my Bank of America have not been helpful or accommodating to help with resolving this fraud scam against me and I want to get some help with trying to figure out how to recover the funds and return back to me or have XXXX XXXX assume the liability since it was transferred to a XXXX XXXX account. Perhaps if XXXX  can locate the account the funds were transferred to, they can reverse the payment and return the funds back to B of A for me to get the funds restored. My only concern with timing is that these thieves could have already closed the XXXX XXXX account once the funds were transferred to them from the XXXX payment. I would really appreciate if your organization can step in to assist with this investigation with trying to recover my funds as this was all of the money I had for my family and my Mom has to have XXXX XXXX and I had a XXXX uncle that needs XXXX  XXXX  and I need the money to help my family.

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