Consumer complaint received 2021-12-23
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: UT
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
In early XXXX of XXXX, I was contacted through the app, XXXX, by a lady by the name of XXXX who " accidentally '' contact me thinking she was reaching out to a business partner. I blew it off but she mentioned that maybe we could help each other with our businesses. I thought that was fine and even told my wife about the encounter. Over the next few weeks, she mentioned trading on a platform called XXXX and XXXX that does foreign exchange trades. She mentioned if I wanted to learn how to do it that she could help teach me. So I reluctantly said ok to that thinking it was legit. She showed me how to trade, put me in touch with a broker that she " uses '' and I got set up on the XXXX trading platform. There were XXXX people involved with this. XXXX, a guy name XXXX helped inform me when to go in and out of the market, and another guy named XXXX that helped with the brokerage and helped to tell me where to send my funds to various banks. 

In order to get funds to the platform ( which I found out later was all fraudulent ), I had to transfer funds to a bank account that they had set up. Each time I would transfer funds the bank name and account would occasionally change but they claimed it was for tax reasons only. 

They provided documents for the brokerage trying to prove they were legit. I ended up testing the platform with her advice and using a trading professional named " XXXX ''. She said using his advice you would do well. I tried it, it worked, so I tried it again. But at some point during trading, I would end up losing everything and she would push me to put more and more in. She would even match what I was putting in to help me " recover '' the funds faster. She always showed what she earned and it was large amounts of money. 

The pressure to pay back and earn back the losses was great. I got advice from my tax advisor and he said that the money I put in would never be recovered and that the entire thing was a fraud. I immediately started looking online and noticed that I was part of a big scam called a 'pig butchering scam '. 

I immediately tried to get funds out of the account but I magically lost it all again. In total, I ended up losing about {$140000.00} dollars. 

This all happened between the periods of XXXX to XXXX. At the end of XXXX I reached out to a site called XXXX to get help and they've pointed me to many resources to try to get my funds back. Each transfer was made to a XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX  or to a Bank of America. When I tried to go through my institution to return funds back they were denied as the accounts were closed. I attempted that twice on two different occasions. My bank is with XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX and I worked with XXXX XXXX, an account specialist there. 

Here 's a brief timeline of events : XXXX- was first contacted XXXX to XXXX - traded and made transfers to various banks to increase funds into XXXX. The exact trade amounts are attached. I can provide accounts and banks as well. 

XX/XX/XXXX {$4000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$5800.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$5000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$5000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$1000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$5000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$5000.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$10000.00} XX/XX/XXXX - I contacted my local police to file a police report claiming the fraud. 

XXXX I contacted XXXX XXXX for identity fraud. They took my case to work to receive funds back. They took my case and I was sent to work with XXXX. 

XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX - worked with my local bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to get funds back from banking institutions. Each was rejected as accounts were closed. 

XX/XX/XXXX - I received a letter from XXXX that my case didn't apply for identity protection coverage. 

XX/XX/XXXX - Told through XXXX to try to apply with CFPB for help.

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