Consumer complaint received 2021-09-20
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
This is the letter I sent Bank of America Attention Debit Card Operators and/or Bank of America Fraud Department , I am writing this letter in an official appeal to a letter I received from Bank of America ( BOA ) denying my claim on these stolen {$5100.00}. I learned of this within days of sending my first fax. I faxed in letters on XXXX/XXXX/21 and XXXX/XXXX/21 to XXXX. I just called BOA again to confirm that my case was being processed and BOA rep said nothing and there is no change to my claim. I am writing this letter in massive frustration. BOA has managed to make errors in every single step of this process of the handling of this claim. 

Beginning with the selective fact pattern that a BOA investigator cherry picked regarding their decision to deny this claim. The conclusion was frankly lazy and absurd, and then every step since then has been a massive headache as well. I just dont understand why the information that is conveyed to me is always 85 % right and not 100 % right. 

Everything I write here now has all been explained to BOA fraud reps at least a dozen times. I have had to waste so much time on calls and multiple letters for what seems like the easiest case to understand. Easily over 40 hours wasted. 

{$5100.00} is a lot of money. BOA promised to have that money returned in 10 days or less of XX/XX/XXXX21 It has now been over 6 weeks, and I am unable to meet certain business funding needs because of this. 

I am told that my claim was denied because I transferred {$5000.00} into this account on XXXX/XXXX/21. Then on XX/XX/XXXX21 when I had a balance of {$5300.00}, a withdrawal of {$5100.00} was made using my debit card through XXXX XXXX. The investigators conclusion is that the numbers XXXX ; XXXX ; and XXXX are too close so the transaction was me and not fraud. Implying that I have committed an extremely serious crime. 





Below are ALL of the actual facts that were ignored : 1 ) I made are that in 5 separate deposits in the month of XXXX 2021. In total, I deposited {$19000.00} into this account. I transferred money both in and out as needed by the business. I had a balance of {$10000.00} at the end of XXXX and then on XXXX.21 I transferred via XXXX {$5000.00} out of the account. That is what gave me the {$5300.00} balance. So even in this actual instance the facts are not XXXX in, XXXX balance, XXXX out. Cant possibly be fraud. 

2 ) I called Bank of America IMMEDIATELY after I learned of this happening on XXXX21. As soon I learned of unusual transaction, I called BOA fraud. This is within an hour of the transaction occurring and it was while the transaction was marked pending. I very clearly told BOA this transaction was not me, it was fraud and to cancel the transaction. Do not allow my funds to leave my account or the bank, NO money should go to XXXX XXXX. I dont know why that didnt happen. Why Bank of America didnt stop the transaction. Particularly when the money would not actually leave my account until 2 days later on XXXX21 according to the account activity of my bank account. 

My wife, XXXX XXXX, was a victim of fraud that day. XXXX21. Her information is at the top of page 1. I assume that this is the how criminals were able to get into my account. They got into my XXXX account as well. My wife immediately told BOA about the fraud that happened to her. She told BOA to stop payments on fraudulent XXXX made from her account and that was done immediately. Pending transactions, the funds that were sent through XXXX never left her account. Without issue. 

She was reimbursed. WHY COULD YOU STOP HER TRANSACTIONS AND NOT MINE? For her BOA didnt send the money to the counterparty. Why couldnt they do that here? Instead, my interactions with BOA were extremely friendly customer service reps ( you really have very nice people working for you ) but accomplished nothing. There was absolutely no urgency, and everyone told me to just wait, this happens. This is normal. Getting refunded the money wont be a problem. Here we are now, over 6 weeks later and you are not even receiving my letters regarding the full facts of the case. 



3 ) On XXXX21 While I was on with the BOA fraud department, the BOA XXXX fraud department called me. I conferenced the two separate BOA reps together on the same call. BOA XXXX was asking about a fraudulent XXXX for {$3900.00}. That transaction was able to be canceled. The failed XXXX transaction occurred first. THEN the XXXX  XXXX  transaction occurred. 

For the fake XXXX that was canceled. Someone created my own name ( XXXX XXXX ) as a fake recipient to a phone number I do not know which is linked to a bank account that I dont know. BOA wouldnt tell me what bank or bank account the false recipients phone number was linked to. This occurred first and failed before the XXXX  XXXX transaction was ever attempted. Yet the investigators of my claim never commented on this, never investigated this, didnt even consider it as part of their investigation. Its laughable. This was all clearly the same people. Yet the BOA investigators conclusion is that I created a false claim which they denied because of the similarities of the amounts of {$5100.00} and {$5000.00} and {$5300.00}. As if someone who was able to break into my account and do all this other stuff described above would never have the technical knowhow to look at the balance of the account they were robbing? 

4 ) One would think that after a failed transaction of that XXXX that my account would be on a higher alert for fraud transactions and more wary of fraud but clearly it was not. 

5 ) When I spoke to BOA on XXXX21, they did put a notice of some kind on my account that I thought would stop the XXXX XXXX debit. That was the intent. I dont know why it didnt happen. This really shouldnt be a loss for BOA as they had the time and knowledge to never let the money leave the bank but that did not occur. During my calls on XXXX21 with BOA, I changed my username and log in as well as cancel all of the debit and credit cards attached to the XXXX XXXX business account. 

6 ) I have never used a debit card once on this account. I never received the card. I said I dont think it was stolen or lost because I didnt lose anything that day, but I also was clear that I never used nor knew where this card was. This is a business account, and a debit card is never needed. 

7 ) I have never used XXXX XXXX or a debit card with any of my 7 BOA business bank accounts. 







8 ) The recipient of the false XXXX XXXX transaction was to my wife. A person that was the victim of fraud on that same XXXX.21. My wifes only bank account is with BOA and she never deposited that money {$5100.00} back into her account. That did not happen. Fraudsters took the money from her XXXX XXXX account, and it was gone. My wifes only personal bank account is with BOA. Old account on first page. A new account has been opened. If I had sent these funds to my wife, then the only way she could deposit them from XXXX XXXX would be to put that money into her BOA account. So had my wife actually received the {$5100.00}, she would have deposited into her BOA account. 

9 ) Additionally, I would have to be insane to call and say the transaction was fraud and then just send it to my wife. Nonetheless, this is investigators current conclusion for my claims denial. Disregarding all other available information. 

10 ) My wife filed a police report of her incident. This is again all verifiable. The police told my wife that they have filed subpoenas for BOAs records. 

11 ) My wife was told during her speaking to BOA reps and the police that BOA was ALREADY AWARE of these criminals. BOA has been tracking and following this specific group of criminals as part of some larger investigation. Why would this be a relevant fact? {$5100.00} is stolen from my account, no mention from the investigator regarding this. 

12 ) The only transactions I have ever used in this XXXX XXXX bank account are : XXXX, wires or ACHs plus there is a monthly car payment. Otherwise, no other withdrawals of any kind have ever been made. Using the debit card and using XXXX XXXX have never occurred. Both are completely out of line with all the other activity that has ever occurred in this business bank account. 

13 ) There were additional other failed transactions in my account that day. Im not exactly sure what happened because BOA has removed this activity from my current viewable account activity. On XXXX.21, I could see all of this irregular activity and attempted transactions in my account but now I cant see them. Nonetheless, I am sure there are records of this at BOA. My point is that after the failed zelle there should be a record of the criminals trying and failing 1 or 2 times to steal the {$5100.00} before the XXXX XXXX option worked for them. 

14 ) BOA has very good security in my opinion. The system of sending a text to my phone with a unique code which I must read back to the bank works very well. I cant do anything with BOA without doing that. With this much suspicious activity why wasnt some security measure like that implemented or required? 



15 ) I am both angry and shocked that there is a debate about my claim. BOA has WASTED so much of my time. The BOA reps I have spoken to are all very nice. However, each time I call I am told a slightly different answer on how to resolve this claim. At first, I could simply explain all this on the phone. Then the attempted stopping of a pending transaction, to not allow funds to leave my account, didnt work. Then I went over all of this again on a follow up call. I was told this info would be included in the claim investigation. I was told during my follow up calls that there was clearly more than enough sufficient evidence for my claim. Each time I received a very positive response from BOA reps : oh well take care of this, no problem, yet the claim investigation went so differently. As if there is no communication between BOA departments. 

16 ) I was recently told that I now need to send this lengthy fax, re-explaining all the facts that were failed to be considered as part of my claim. Here they are for the 3rd time. 

17 ) I dont understand why all the above information was not addressed in my claim investigation. If it was all considered and still denied, then I would please like an explanation for ALL of these other unexplainable details. It makes no sense that my wife called in her fraud issues about the exact same broad case and the result is that she had a very pleasant and quick experience with BOA and my claim continues to be a debacle. I cant even get a fax to be received. 



Best, 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 monetary relief