Consumer complaint received 2020-11-19
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Received unsolicited email from unknown source pretending to be President of Bank of America, promising some inheritance release, if some personal information is provided. Entire email is below : Payment Release Notification From The Bank Of America. 



From : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Bcc : XXXX Thu, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX  BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX  XXXX NY XXXX USA. 

Payment Release Notification From The Bank Of America. 

DEAR CUSTOMER This is to officially inform you that we have been instructed to release your over due contract Inheritance/ lottery Payment of {$10.00} XXXX to you without any further, and we will have no other option than to believe that you are dead as claimed by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX if you fail to respond back to our email this time. 

As a matter of fact, we lost your Full Personal/ banking details after our annual system upgrade which made it impossible for us to contact you, and we were only able to find your email address after several searchs on our documents. 

Few weeks ago, a woman named XXXX XXXX XXXX sent a letter to our bank here in the United States claiming that you are dead and she further stated that before you died, you informed her about your contract Inheritance/ lottery payment worth {$10.00} XXXX which is presently under our custody. 

Note that XXXX XXXX XXXX also sent a copy of your death certificate to us in other to make her claim authentic, but we did not believe her because you had never mentioned her as your next of kin to us. 

In fact, she has given us every reason to believe that you are dead as she claims, and she is ready to take care of what ever it will cost her to get your funds transferred into her personal account, but I have been instructed by the management of this bank to contact you this last time in order to be sure that you are dead as she claimed, before releasing the payment to her. 

So are you dead or are you still alive? If yes, you have been advised to urgently reconfirm your full personal/ banking details as requested below to us immediately, in order for us to cancel every further arrangement in regards to the release of your fund to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 

The Charges attached to this payment release option ( ONLINE BANKING PAYMENT RELEASE SYSTEM ) are as follows : ( A ) Online Banking Account Opening Fee : ( B ) Fund Transfer Authorization Clearance Fee : To complete your Online Banking opening process, you are required to submit your Full Name, Address, Date of Birth, Contact Telephone No, Occupation, Name of Next of Kin and a scanned copy of your passport photograph 200x200 in size. 

This payment release option also gives you access to purchase goods online, paybills and other online banking payment options. 

However, We Shall Proceed To Issue All Payments Details To The Said XXXX XXXX XXXX If We Do Not Hear From You Within 48 banking hours. 

Your Urgent attention is needed if you are still alive. 

Yours Faithfully, For And On Behalf Of Bank of America Corporation XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX Bank of America Bank of America. Registered in United States. XXXX XXXX. : XXXX. 
Bank of America is authorized and regulated by the XXXX XXXX XXXX

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