Consumer complaint received 2022-07-30
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: OR
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Late in the evening of XX/XX/XXXX I got a call from Bank of America. It showed as " Bank of America '' with the correct phone number on the caller ID. The person on the other end said they were with the bank fraud department and they noticed some fraudulent XXXX transactions coming through and wanted to give me notice to see if those were made by me. I said no so we proceeded with the conversation. 
XXXX said that since XXXX isn't covered by the same protection as wire transfers we needed to do a different transaction to prevent that money from being taken out of my savings account. I spent a while on the phone with him trying to determine that this was the right thing to do, but he assured me that this was a new regulation and although it seemed abnormal this was the best plan of action. He talked me through making 2 bank-to-bank transactions, one for {$2500.00} and one for {$1000.00} to an account with my middle name and last name, so " XXXX XXXX '' or something like that. I spent a while making sure they were the real bank since this didn't seem right. He gave me his badge number " XXXX '' which in looking back is likely just some made up number. Since I was spending time trying to figure out if it was really the bank calling, the transactions took too long and the transaction bounced, saying they were fraud. He told me that was because the protection was working, and we just needed to do one more thing to stop the rest of the scam and that was make another series of XXXX transfers. I thought this was suspicous, so he transfered me to his supervisor " XXXX XXXX '' who assured me that this was in fact the regulation and to just trust them, and that everything being done was FTC insured. I was tired and scared so I filled out about 5 or 6 XXXX transactions to a separate account, and those are the transfers that made me realize this was not a real transaction. I hung up after the last one and immediately called Bank of America 's fraud department. While on the phone with the real BofA fraud department I got a lot of help and reassurance that this " me-to-me '' scam was common and that most of the time they're able to refund the money without issue. I gave the woman on the phone all the information she asked for, and she said they'd be in touch with me. 

Over the next few weeks I got emails about my claim from Bank of America stating they would not be able to refund my money : " We confirmed that these transfers posted to the account you requested. '' Suggesting that it was not fraud and that I sent that money willingly. This is not the case. I was convinced that my bank was talking me through methods to protecting myself from having money stolen from my account. The people on the phone spoke clearly, calmly, and sounded as though they were in the United States which reinforced their legitimacy to me. I had to pay rent the next day and was worried my money would be gone, so I followed their instructions to protect my money, and in doing so I was tricked into sending them nearly all of my savings.

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