Consumer complaint received 2023-01-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: SC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX XXXX  someone successfully impersonated my bank and stole {$7000.00}, which is all the money I had been saving to pay my taxes in the spring. 

So far, after reporting it to the police, my insurance company, and my bank, my requests for help have been denied due to the fact that money stolen in this manner is almost always impossible to recover and that I am the one solely responsible for transferring my money to the scammer. 

Yet when the thief called, he said {$8500.00} had been stolen from my account and needed to be recovered by me transferring the funds to my account manager. This corresponds to the amount of money I had in all my accounts at the time. How could the money he claimed was stolen from me correspond to the money I had in my accounts if he did not have access to my account? When he first called on XX/XX/XXXX, he tried to get me to make a transfer of {$1500.00}. The transfer did not go through so he tried to get me transfer to a different recipient, which also didnt go through. He said he would call back on another day and also told me my accounts would be locked until I transferred the money. I did in fact try to access my accounts before the money was successfully transferred two days later and I was not able to access them, nor was I able to use my debit cards. Additionally, after he called to say my account had been breached and that I needed to transfer all the money in my savings to my account manager in order for it to be recovered, I hung up and called the number he called from and was taken to an automated recording from my bank, which gave me assurance the call was legitimate. ( My bank responded that these scammers can steal recordings from banks to make the calls seem genuine. ) Thirdly, I was receiving texts from my bank during the call during the process of me transferring the money. ( My bank responded to this by saying he was probably on the line with a real bank employee while on the phone with me. ) What seems to be not taken to account when claims like these are reviewed is not only the sophistication of the scammers and the fact that they have access to the same information an authentic bank employee has, even though I never gave anyone access to my account. Shouldnt a bank take some responsibility in failing to prevent criminals like these to get through the cracks in their security and get their customers information? Our records indicate that we completed the transfers according to the instructions you provided us, and therefore no error occurred says my bank when denying my claim. But I would never have agreed to transfer the funds if the scammer did not give me every indication that he had insider access to my bank accounts. 

I am now being charged an XXXX XXXXXXXX fee for having insufficient funds in my savings account after the money was stolen.

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