Consumer complaint received 2017-01-27
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money

Complaint:
I am in process of buying a house. 10 days before closing date which is XX/XX/2017, someone faked email ids of my real estate agent and real estate attorney, and duped me into sending a wire for USD XXXX as the cash down component of my house purchase. The wire was sent on Friday XX/XX/2017. Copy of the entire email communication with the " fake '' email id is attached, so is the copy of the wire I sent. My bank is Bank of America ( BOA ) in XXXX NC and the receiving bank is XXXX in XXXX, XXXX. I did the wire through a branch of BOA. The associate who sent the wire, although the address of receiving bank that i had in my wire instructions and the ones showing up on bank 's screen did not match, the associate did not think it was of concern and sent the wire. The FED ID no of the wire is XXXX, and the money was received into the receiving account, as confirmed by the FED ID number. 
May be noted that fake email ids were created by changing 1 character of the email id to disguise it well and make it very difficult for anyone to realize they are face. The genuine mail id of real estate agent is XXXX while fake one is XXXX ( note the extra " s '' after estate ). Genuine mail id of real estate attorney is XXXX while fake one is XXXX ( note the change of. position ) On Monday, XX/XX/2017 morning, I got a call from the XXXX dept of XXXX ( contact number XXXX ), asking me to verify the authenticity of the wire. I then realized that something is wrong. XXXX said i should check if this is fraudulent and if yes, contact my bank immediately and take steps to recall the money. I did that immediately. Bank of America generated a " wire recall '' advise on same day XX/XX/XXXX, but due to some procedural issues, was actually sent to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX, using XXXX XXXX with ref no. XXXX-XX/XX/2017. The recall advise clearly mentioned that this is a fraudulent transaction and funds should be reversed immediately. 
I called XXXX Police dept and filed a XXXX case ( case no. XXXX ). Detective XXXX started work on the case on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I and Detective XXXX have followed up with XXXX several times now. The bank says they will not take any action or return my money until they receive from Bank of America a " letter of indemnity, also called Hold Harmless letter '', which apparently indemnifies them against any liability. Bank of America refuses to send any such letter, they claim by doing so, they will become liable, which they are not. Despite multiple follow ups with multiple departments of both banks, neither bank is willing to budge from its respective position. 
XXXX meanwhile has frozen the account under question, since they already suspected something suspicious. They refuse to divulge any more information, including whether my money is still in that account or not. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a new email from the XXXX email account ( fake email of my real estate agent ) saying there 's a problem with them accessing the funds and the funds are being reversed and later sent me a fresh set of wire instructions for another bank account ( details in the email thread ). From this, it seems clear that there is high probability that the funds are there in the frozen account. 
This is a very large sum of money that amounts of many years of savings and has placed me and my family under tremendous financial stress. Time is running out, I fear that i will lose my hard earned money. 
I want to file a complaint against Bank of America, for not doing enough to protect the interest of its customer, and refusing to communicate with XXXX and find a resolution. They should submit a " Hold Harmless '' letter to XXXX, which will enable XXXX to take action and release the money

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