Consumer complaint received 2018-04-26
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Hello Consumer finance, This is a scam activity I'm writing here to complaint about on bank of America. Two things that i want to focus on 1. Scam activity that has happened on my account for which my account was disabled or blocked. 

2. Very low security through online banking system. 

Issue 1 : Scam activity : To start with, I have posted some item for sale ( XXXX $ ) on social media. So there was a person who was interested to buy it. I have never met him or known him earlier. I have given my bank of America details ( email id ) to make the payment. He wanted to know my bank account number as he said he's unable to transfer through email id. 

Unfortunately, this person has got an access of my online confirmation code and he raised a false claim requesting for some credit on my behalf in my account ( I have never raised a claim or dispute from my account as such since the beginning of the opening of the account until XX/XX/XXXX for reporting a scam activity to raise a dispute to refund the amount that was transferred wrongly ). 

XX/XX/XXXX : First fake claim filed on my behalf. 
When I checked my account, there was XXXX $ extra in my account. When i called bank of America executive, they too didn't know any information regarding the same. ( Pitfall of the online banking system- 1 ). How can a banker not know about the activity that's going on in my account? 

Little did I know about online banking or claims, I believed whatever the scammer ( customer who wanted to purchase my product ) has told me. He said he had transferred XXXX $ to my account on XX/XX/XXXX. I was kind enough to believe him and wanted to help him by refunding his amount. But said he has some problem with his account, so he wanted me to transfer the same to his wife 's account. So I have transferred XXXX $ on XX/XX/XXXX ( deducting XXXX $ for the price of an item ) right then. 

Later he told it's not working and wanted me to transfer the actual cost of an item back to him. So i did transfer XXXX $ to his account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

False claim 2 : He called me and said that the amount of XXXX $ to his wife 's account has not been credited and wanted to raise a claim. He raised a claim again asking for my authorisation code. He successfully raised a claim on my behalf and the temporary credit was again adjusted on my account for XXXX . He later on changed his mind to make a purchase of the item. So i have decided to deduct XXXX $ from XXXX $ and have transferred XXXX $ to him on XX/XX/XXXX. 

These transactions have happened through XXXX. 

Next day when i tried to log into my online banking, I got a notification that my account has been locked. Until then i didn't even suspect what was happening on my account. When I called Bank of America Customer service, they told me they have no information but the account is in the process of closure. 

It was after that i have approached Bank of America financial centre near to my place and a banker helped me with identifying the process of scam. 

Filed a dispute on XX/XX/XXXX for the very first time asking for reversal of these transactions. But i didn't know what device means when the executive was asking for. So had to tell it was not me it was scammer ( i meant to say about the activity that done by him ) Unfortunately, when i called up today, the fraud department told me that the claim has been rejected. 

2. Very very low security through online banking service. 
A.First foremost point, when someone called on my behalf, why did the system acccepted his call when the call was made from a different number? 
B. Why was there such a low security when it claimed to offer best services? There wasn't any voice recognition portal. 
To be honest, when banking in XXXX, the call only got connected to the banker or an executive when there was a voice matched. 
C. The details of the claims are not found on the mobile banking app. Instead there was a email regarding the claim that has been opened. But when claim or dispute is said to play a prominent role, why the complete details are not found completely? A layman can never understand the terminology. 

Banking is supposed to be very secure. But unfortunately the most important feature, it all about security, it's missing in Bank of America. 

Very unfortunate that my first account in the USA is with Bank of America. Regret for having banking with you.

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