Consumer complaint received 2022-09-28
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
COMPLAINT RE : BANK OF AMERICA On or about Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, I got an urgent message on my computer telling me I had been hackedmy computers, my smartphone, and my bank accounts. I did not write down all the connections I was sent through, but I ended up talking to a person with a heavy XXXX accent, who claimed that his name was XXXX XXXX, at Bank of America headquarters in the Fraud Control Division, and that his ID number was XXXX, in XXXX, NC. The phone number on which I have been communicating with him, however, is XXXX, which comes up on my phone as XXXX XXXX XXXX, MO. He didnt sound like an XXXX XXXX to me, and I think at an earlier stage in our conversation he may have given his name as XXXX XXXX XXXX 

Over the next week, he asked me ( a ) to keep all communications between us strictly confidential, which, until today, I have done. However, I figure a week is long enough to put up with this late-night tv drama. ( b ) He explained to me that in order to track down the hackers, we would need to transfer most of the money in my bank accounts ( a checking account in Bank of America, and checking and savings accounts in XXXX XXXX XXXX ) onto XXXX gift cards, and then ( this part wasnt exactly clear to me, and was probably not intended to be ) he would do something or other that would secure my accounts from the hackers and they would put the money back into the accounts. 

I finished transferring my funds onto XXXX gift cards last night and was told they would be restored today. So I went to the grocery store this morning, having run out of several things I couldnt do without any longer, and discovered that there was no money on the gift cards and no money in my bank accounts. XXXX XXXX keeps texting me now to reassure me that the money will be back in my accounts some time soon. I am not reassured. It didnt help that all of this was happening during my major religious holidays. I do not know what kind of afterlife XXXX XXXX is anticipating, if any, but I hope it is unpleasant. 

A couple of other minor details : XXXX XXXX did a bit of show-and-tell on my computer at the beginning of this process, indicating that the hackers were operating through an account based in XXXX, and that they had set up some kind of scheme to transfer {$1500.00} of my money to XXXX. Sorry, I dont remember the rest of the address. ) I suspect that XXXX and XXXX were calculated to trigger immediate panic responses in the average computer-illiterate XXXX widow. Also, he claims that there are only 16 other people ( in XXXX? Illinois? The entire XXXX? Im not sure ) who have been afflicted with this scam. I also suspect that they ( the hackers? XXXX XXXX? Who knows? ) had been watching my accounts long enough to know what days of the month my accounts would contain the largest amount of funds, ie {$1500.00} or thereabouts. 
If you need my account numbers, I will forward them on request. I think I would prefer doing so on a live secure phone line rather than in any kind of text or email communication.

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