Consumer complaint received 2020-06-18
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: AZ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
Bank of America has made the incredibly poor business decision to start mailing credit cards with RFID touchless technology fully activated, via US Mail causing huge negative customer impacts by opening customers up to fraud and identity theft. These cards data and the customer data are easily stolen by thieves when they are sent to customers, because Bank of America has chosen suddenly to start sending these fully activated ready to use status in the mail. This is absolutely an incredibly poor decision opening customers up to fraud. 

I was a victim of fraud when B of A sent me an updated Bank of America XXXX XXXX credit card in the past few weeks. Before I even was able to open the mail, the card was being used all over Oklahoma and Iowa. I opened a fraud dispute and told the person I worked with in BofA fraud dept to include all of the Oklahoma charges in the dispute for fraud. I also specifically reviewed charges in XXXX XXXX AZ, XXXX, AZ, XXXX, AZ and told this employee NOT to include any of the AZ ones in the fraud claim as they were legitimate purchases. This call should of been on a recorded line as well and I am asking CFPB to assist me in getting in touch with executive level management at BofA and department heads of their Fraud and Claims unit to find out why this employee choose to cause further customer aggravation by including the XXXX charge for {$10.00} in XXXX XXXX, AZ as part of the fraud claim when I clearly told this employee not to do so, and also explain why the bank would send by mail a fully activated card out to customers with touchless technology with virtually no consumer protection measures taken against fraud. 

I want BofA to type an apology letter on bank letter head AND/OR reach out to the XXXX   merchant in XXXX XXXX AZ under Claim # XXXX and explain to that XXXX owner and operator that this was a Bank of America error and I did not ask for a claim of fraud to be started against them. XXXX XXXX is a very small town and I frequent this location often. Bank of America is causing reputation damage to me and will cause customer business relation issues for me by having their employee do sloppy fraud claim work by including this in the fraud claim. 

I also want CFPB to be aware of the situation that caused this in the first place and place into consumer advocacy record that Bank of America has started to send RFID cards ready to use fully activated through the US Mail with touchless technology, which is exposing consumers and their customers to become easy victims fraud and identity theft. I hope upper management at executive level at Bank of America becomes aware of this issue and its impact through this CFPB Complaint. It's unbelievable a bank would do this to costumers and expose them and cause customers to go through what I went through. I would like CFPB to also seek an explanation on whey Bank of America is sending these fully activated RFID ready to use cards through the US Mail exposing consumers to easy fraud and identity theft I have been a victim of fraud now and have spent hours on the phone having to deal with this. The cards they send even have stickers on them stating they are ready to use immediately and do not require activation. In the past before the RFID touchless tech was rolled out on these cards, previous cards always required some sort of activation. They need to go back to making this the standard or more consumers will be victims of fraud and identity theft like I was by Bank of Americas poor decisions to roll out touchless technology in envelopes via the mail, fully activated  requiring no authentication. Bank of America is setting customers up to become victims of fraud and identity theft.

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