Consumer complaint received 2016-01-10
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
A former friend on XXXX & XXXX was advertising about making some money. Me being hard on times decided to go and try it out ( since this is someone I knew since high school ) i figured they would be legit. The deal was that she had an aunt who was having trouble transfering money to her account so she needed a bank account to transfer to. She was to transfer XXXX $ to my account and let me keep XXXX of it. That set off a red flag so I made sure to ask more questions about this being legit or am I going to have to worry about bank problems? She says everything is legit nothing to worry about and she proceeded to tell me its simple, how her aunt really needs help and she 's done it before for her cousins she just ca n't do it more than once on an account because of the amount of money she is trying to transfer to the country will look like fraud. I figured her aunt was just rich ( again this is a " friend '' so I believe it ). I met up with her cousin and gave him the card with the pin and he assured me its all okay and he 's done it before. I suspect nothing wrong at the moment. The money is in my account but theres a hold on it. So she needs more information to get it through. She needs my social security so she can use the card because the people at the bank think its a fraud. Feeling funny about this I start backing out but again she calls me telling me its all legit & that we are friends and I should not worry. Im like okay sure why not.. So i check my bank of america app on my phone later in the day and see no transfer ... but a deposit of a check from XXXX made out to my name?? Red flags are going off like crazy now & I see now this was the " aunt '' she was speaking of. I start getting emails about fraud from my bank like crazy. Im thinking she did say something about them mistaking it for fraud. I decide to call the bank anyway just in case fearing for the worst ... and before i can get through to them ( they have me on hold forever ) I check my account & it is suddenly closed now and I cant access my stuff. I call my " friend '' right away and she assures me everything is fine just to relax and it 'll be fixed by the next day they have to go talk to the bankers to tell them whats going on. I leave it alone for a day, hope for the best to see if my account went back to normal and nothing. My account is closed and now no word from the " friend '' I was dealing with. I go to my bank and they tell me because I did not get back to them within the time frame my account is shut down and I will need to go to check systems about this. This was back in the end of XXXX of 2015. I have n't had the means to be able to deal with this situation & am now finally ready to file a complaint. I was obviously duped and would like to know what I can do to fix this situation? I can not open up another bank account because of this and would really like to get this handle as soon as possible. There were deposits & withdrawals made to my account at Bank of America locations in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX NY. I was living in XXXX at the time and the account had my address information and everything. Hopefully this can all work out for the best but I just want to figure this out and get this behind me once and for all. Thank you for your time.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation