Consumer complaint received 2022-06-08
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX at around XXXX I received a text message claiming to be Bank of America asking if I tried using my debit card at XXXX for {$10.00}, GTL for {$25.00} or XXXX for {$1500.00}. I said NO and I received a called from some one claiming to be XXXX from BofA. He sounded like a rep, although questionable, however, he caught me at the worst time. I was rushing between doctors appointments and his urgency was that I needed to change my password immediately. So I pulled over to do so. When I logged into my account, he had me go to XXXX and asked me to send funds to myself as that was the only way to get my money back. I hadn't used XXXX in a very long time, so I couldn't remember what the deal with it was, but ultimately he had me enter in a phone number XXXX and put in my First name but not my last, instead use my initials AH multiple times and asked that I transfer money quickly to stop money from transferring out. Again, panicked and confused I listened. I really believed he was from the fraud department at Bank of America. Thus " XXXX '' convinced me to send three amounts. {$1500.00}, {$990.00} and finally {$1000.00}. When my XXXX maxed out with the amount of money I could transfer, the person said that he would call me the following day at the same time. Immediately after I hung up I realized that this person had scammed me. I called BofA right away, after hours of trying to get a hold of some one in the XXXX fraud dept. Finally after getting a hold of some one, I was able to file a claim. That person was very empathetic and explained that this type of scam happened very often and assured me that BofA would investigate and work towards retrieving my money. I was told it could take from 10-45 days to investigate. So after two weeks I called and was twice, first my case was still pending and then the second time a few days later, today on XX/XX/2022 I was told that my case was closed and that BofA had determined that the number associated with this account was indeed a CHASE account but that they were not going to refund the money. Of course I was upset and asked for a better reason. The rep was unable to clarify. Said it was what it was and asked why I didn't file a police report. After telling her I wasn't dumb and that I never had had to do that before for any credit card fraud, etc, she simply tells me she's sorry. At one point she lied to me about escalating my complaint but then later in the conversation said she could not. Eventually I'm transferred to a supervisor who reiterates the same information and tells me to file a police report. I asked how this would work since I don't know what city the person lives in and how the police would respond knowing that they wouldn't. In the end she gave me an email to her supervisor. I want my money back. It was stolen and it's unacceptable that the banks and XXXX are playing this game with their costumers.

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 explanation