Consumer complaint received 2016-04-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Me and my daughter 's Bank of American account was involved in a very elaborate fraud scam. On XXXX XXXX, 2016, XXXX check s in the amounts {$4900.00} and {$4900.00} were deposited into our account at an ATM located in XXXX, XXXX ; which neither of us resides in. I live in XXXX, XXXX and my daughter attends college in XXXX, XXXX. The checks that were deposited were XXXX checks drawn from a BOA account. The following day XXXX men came to my daughter 's apartment, presented their XXXX business cards and told her that XXXX accidently wired almost $ XXXX into her account and that they were there to collect the money. She was unaware of the deposit at the time but checked her account and confirmed what the men said was true. She is a XXXX XXXX XXXX college student who was taught not to question authority so she did what they told her to do. Because she is so naive of banking, she thought bank withdrawals had daily limits like ATM withdrawal so she withdrew half the money at one bank and the other half from another branch and gave it to them. Two days later, XXXX returned the checks back to BOA ; which resulted in our account being overdrawn for {$9700.00} and they deactivated my ATM card for all my accounts ; which is how I was notified of the fraud. I immediately submitted a fraud claim with the bank to conduct an investigation. About a week later an investigator called my daughter who conferenced me on the call. BOA pulled the camera footage for the ATM where the checks were deposited and were able to confirm that the deposits were s made by a man, the investigator told us that the man had been implicated in other investigation conducted by Bank of America however they only had his image but did not know who he was. The investigator was trying to intimidate my daughter by insinuating that she was part of the fraud ; by questioning why she made XXXX withdrawals as well as how the men would know where she lived. After the call with the investigator I went on line and did a people search under my daughter 's name ; which showed that she resides in XXXX, XXXX and for {$7.00} I could have purchased a full report ; which included her full address. It was a completely unbiased investigation ; any criminal can infiltrate our personal information from the internet ; which is why identity theft is such a security threat to us all. Although BOA did confirm that the checks deposited were not done by me or my daughter nor was it my daughter signature on the check ; they denied the claim and are now holding us responsible for repayment of all the money, they submitted us to XXXX and have closed the account. They have refused to take any responsibility for their lack of due diligence. 
Initially we did not see the purpose of filing a police report as we felt nothing would come from it and no matter what the results of the police investigation, Bank of America would still holding us responsible for the repayment of the money. However after speaking to a Consumer Protection attorney, he advised me to submit a police report to have it on record that a fraud was committed against us. 
BOA should be held responsible for not doing their due diligence to protect us by neglected to identify the below red flags : 1. The deposits were made at an ATM outside of the states the either of us live in 2. The unusualness of a deposits so large in student accounts when the average balance is only {$400.00} 3. Their failure to confirm account holder signature 4. Their failure to not place such large checks on hold to confirm funds and/or the legitimacy of the checks before releasing the funds into our account 5. With all of the above red flags they still did not flag the account as having fraudulent activity until after XXXX returned the checks ( when it is was too late )

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