Consumer complaint received 2016-10-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I received a call from the Bank of America fraud department on XXXX/XXXX/16 at XXXX asking to confirm if recent transactions were made by me. I confirmed that they were not and and they stopped the card from working so no more transactions could take place. They advised me that fraud had taken place and confirmed what transactions were done by myself and which ones were done by an un-authorized fraudulent person. The un-authorized transactions were XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$44.00} XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX {$13.00} XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$20.00} XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$53.00} XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$120.00} XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX {$90.00} I was told that I did not have to fill out a police report and they would handle the investigation and I had nothing to worry about. At the time of speaking to the representative they also notice a transaction on my joint account I share with my husband for {$1.00}. I was talked into not filling out a claim for this transaction as it was so small. I received the credit back for the un-authorized transactions. A few days later the money was removed from my account for which Bank of America did an investigation into the claim and said that they did not think the charges were fraudulent. They said this was based on several things which include the proximity of the transactions to our home location, the history of debits, and that the pin number was used for the XXXX XXXX XXXX charges. I called as soon as we noticed they removed the money from the account to speak to the fraud department. At this time I was told by department that they decided against my case because the transactions happened close to my house, a pin number was used for the XXXX XXXX charges and previous history of my account. At this time they also told us that we should have filed a police report as it would have helped with the case, which was not told to us when we first reported this. Again we were told we did not have to file a police report and were never told that it could in some way help to prove that I did not make the transaction. They also told us we should have filed the {$1.00} transaction on my joint account as fraud as well which I was talked out of doing while talking to the claim department. After the money was taken back by Bank of America I called a third time and they said that I should write a paper with everything that happened with time stamps and any extra info we had that could prove that I was not the one who made the transactions. I was told to sign it and date it and fax it to the fraud department. Again this was not asked of us the two previous times we asked them to look into the claim. Along with the police report they seem to ask me and tell me different information everytime I call. I also asked the manager of the fraud department why I would be responsible for all of these transactions when the card was marked as fraud and the account closed as soon as Bank of America called to confirm the transactions. This happened the same day that the transactions took place. While researching the issue I read that according to the electronic funds transfer act I would only be responsible for at the most {$50.00} of the transactions. When I asked about this they said they do not have to follow the rule because their investigation showed no fraud because a PIN was used. So the people ( bank ) that have to follow this regulation can get around the regulation just by saying they researched it and thought it was not fraud? This seems odd as it lets them decide in their own favor so they do n't have to pay fraud claims. I also wanted confirmation to how this act worked as it seems to read any unauthorized transaction whether the pin was used or not was covered if you did not authorize the transactions. Bank of America seems to be closing fraud claims unpaid often with the same response of location and a PIN being used.

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