Consumer complaint received 2020-10-02
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: RI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I am filing this claim in regard to Bank of America 's shameless failure to live up to its fiduciary duties and protect its greatest asset - BOA customers. 

Around early XX/XX/XXXX of this year, I began to search for and apply to rental housing options in Rhode Island for the XXXX - XXXX school year. Despite the pandemic, I knew I needed to forgo living with my family in order to focus on my law school studies. 

My original plan was to live with a roommate for the school year. As such we began looking for housing options together. We found one option on XXXX that seemed valid located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, RI. It had several pictures of the house ( in XXXX, Rhode Island, students mostly rent out houses instead of apartments due to the limited availability of apartment housing ), and contained some contact info on how to apply for the house. 

The first time I contacted this person on XXXX who went by the name of " XXXX, '' I sent her an email asking if I could tour the rental house because I was very interested. Again, rental housing in the XXXX, RI are is quite limited and options were quickly dwindling if I wanted to live close enough to drive to school every day. My first communication with " XXXX '' was via text on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked about the application process and XXXX asked when I needed to move in. After telling this person I plan to move in around XX/XX/XXXX for school, this person said something to the effect " oh great, it will be available by then. '' This XXXX person also said that I could not take a virtual or in-person tour because it was currently being occupied by a tenant until XX/XX/XXXX. As a result, I continued to search for other housing options with my potential roommate. After trying several times and failing to secure housing for the school year, I came upon this XXXX XXXX XXXX. I quickly emailed the person through the XXXX link and asked if this was still available for the XXXX - XXXX school year. 

" XXXX '' responded via email saying that it was still available. Extremely excited that I had finally found affordable rental housing for the school year in a beautiful home, I and my potential roommate began the application process. We both filled out separate application forms. " XXXX '' said the application fee was {$50.00} per person. My potential roommate sent me her {$50.00} via XXXX so we could send it together. I emailed the application to XXXX and asked how I was to pay. She said I could pay through XXXX XXXX. I had never used XXXX XXXX before, but I did my due diligence and researched the platform to see if it was valid. After determining that it was, I sent her the application fee of {$100.00} XXXX {$50.00} for each adult applying to live in the house ). I made this particular payment with my XXXX XXXX. 

After filling and sending the application, XXXX responded that we had been approved and proceeded to send me a copy of the lease. We both signed the leases and returned via email with the XXXX month 's rent ( {$700.00} per month ) and an {$800.00} refund/security deposit ). Again, I sent this payment via XXXX XXXX, but this time, I foolishly used my Bank of America Debit Card to make the payment of {$1000.00}. A few weeks later, XXXX contacted me asking me to pay last month 's rent because the landlord was requesting I do so. XXXX said that she needed payment soon otherwise she would be forced to " refund '' my money and give the house to people who could pay last month 's deposit. Keep in mind that I had stopped searching for rental housing thinking I would be living at the XXXX XXXX XXXX house. This is the day I found out the whole thing was a fraud. 

I contacted my potential roommate and told her about this update. She wisely responded that we should hold off paying anything else until we saw the place. Before this time, I had tried several times to include this roommate in the text exchange between XXXX and I.  Instead of responding to both of us, she would only text me. We both though this was strange but did not read much into it. 

For brevity sake, I responded telling her we would like to tour the house first. She threatened to " refund our money '' and give the house to other people. I remained firm in my response and told her we were not going to pay anything else until we saw the house. She sent a very strange response - something to the effect of - " I'll get back to you about that decision. '' This is when I began scouring the internet to contact the " landlord '' who managed the place. I finally found the property manager 's contact info, XXXX, and called her regarding the house. Within a minute of this conversation she told me it was a scam. After the call I demanded this XXXX person refund our money and of course we never got it back. 

My family advised me to contact the local XXXX, RI police and the XXXX, NC police where I was visiting my family before contacting Bank of America. XXXX Bank of America has a habit of immediately " refunding '' money in regard to fraud and then writing letters to customers saying that the claim was denied, my family told me to contact the police and the state consumer protection agency in RI. 

I contacted the police in RI and NC. I obtained a copy of the police report for my records. After contacting the consumer protection agency in RI, they said they did not do investigations and advised me to file an FBI Internet Crimes Report. I took their advise and filed an FBI Report as well. After taking these measures, I proceeded to call Bank of America. As usual, the refunded me the amount I had paid {$1000.00}, immediately saying they would " do an investigation. '' Two months later, despite SEVERAL recorded calls XXXX on their end XXXX to Bank of America and several notes that had been posted on my account in regard to this situation, they sent me a letter in the mail saying they denied my claim and they would apply the {$1000.00} charge to my account on XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately called the bank again - several times - to see what I could do to no effect. 

I told a BOA employee to reopen the claim. He said that it was possible I was going the wrong route - as in, instead of saying fraud, I should say I did not receive the goods or services paid for. With his help, I reopened the claim and sent a vast amount of paperwork to BOA 's Arizona corporate office. This paperwork included 1 ) printouts of the whole text exchange between me and XXXX which evidenced the scam ; 2 ) copies of the fake leases and applications, and 3 ) copies of the emails this XXXX person had sent me. I also sent copies of the charges made through XXXX XXXX   and the police report I made regarding the scam. 

Despite this clear evidence, BOA has refused to be helpful in any way. Today, they informed me they will reapply the {$1000.00} charge which will bring my account to be in the red - {$1000.00}. Not only have I spent countless hours trying to send paperwork evidencing my claim instead of studying for law school, I communicated with my bank in a timely manner several times. 

The customer service at BOA has been AWFUL. They have clearly shown that they do not care about their consumers despite being one of the biggest and wealthiest banks in our country. Furthermore, it is extremely unfortunate that business such as XXXX have the best customer service. Meanwhile, BOA, an institution that has my personal information regarding social security #, address, etc. has horrible customer service. 

I am filing this complaint with the demand that BOA should refund my {$1000.00} and KEEP IT THAT WAY. I demand that this institution live up to its legal duty to protect its customers in any way possible. I am horrified at the way BOA conducts its business and I am asking that BOA makes policy and institutional changes regarding its customers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation