Consumer complaint received 2017-01-23
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Auto
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Impersonated an attorney or official

Complaint:
I received a letter from the IRS XX/XX/XXXX that they changed our XX/XX/XXXX taxes and I owed {$650.00}. They received a XXXX, Cancellation of Debt on XX/XX/XXXX. It stated it was from B of A and the amount was {$4100.00}. It was in my husband name, he died XX/XX/XXXX, but we filed joint taxes and the IRS wanted the money from me. We had never received a XXXX from B of A. 
I did our finances for the 20 years we were married. I had had a B of A credit card years ago, but he never had anything B of A. The IRS said I have to clear it up with B of A. 
My 1st call was with a rep that was no help what so ever. On my next call I got a very nice young man that scoured all B of A computer systems with my husbands social security number and could not find him anywhere. They did find that old credit card of mine. He gave me the XXXX Research and Dispute Dept. 's fax number and had me send the IRS letter and request a copy of the XXXX we had never received. I waited about 5 days to make sure the fax had been distributed to someone and was n't just sitting in a basket somewhere and followed the fax with a call to that Dept. They also could find no record of any trace of my husband let alone the XXXX sent to the IRS and not us. A very nice Manager there took over and called a couple of times to say no luck. Finally I received a copy of the XXXX in the mail. It has the Debt description as " Direct Auto ''. The address for my husband is over 20 years old. We were married 20 years and he had left that city probably 3 years before that. And he had a car financed by a private party nearly paid off when I met him. It was not Direct Auto. He had bad credit when I met him and I believe there was a bankruptcy, but from XX/XX/XXXX I can swear he never had an auto or any kind of loan with Direct Auto or Bank of America. And it never appeared on any credit bureau over the 20 years we were together. I worked in the consumer finance industry for 10 years and I am well versed in all of it. I regularly pulled credit bureaus on us both. 
With the copy of the XXXX I called back. No one in the XXXX Dispute Dept could find anything again in any data base. Someone must have found something to send me that copy of the XXXX. 
Finally a competent supervisor of the Regulatory Complaint XXXX. in B of A. took ownership of the [ problem, got me a correct XXXX showing {$0.00} cancellation of debt. They submitted it to the IRS and I finally got a letter from the IRS stating I did not owe them anything. 
Today I received a new XXXX from Bank of America for the same {$4100.00} this time the debt was cancelled XX/XX/XXXX. 
I have submitted this as a complaint of impersonating a govt. official because when I call the number on the XXXX the recording says I reached the Home Retention Dept and they are a debt collection agency. I believe they are using the XXXX as a fraudulent attempt to collect a debt. And in this case XXXX that was previously found to have no merit. From my experience in the finance industry years ago, I know that " un-collectable '' debts get passed on down the line, hoping someone will collect something. Using the IRS XXXX as a collection tool can not possibly be legal. They need to be stopped.

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