Consumer complaint received 2022-08-18
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A fraudulent application was made in my name for an XXXX XXXX credit card on XXXX XXXX XXXX. Bank of America notified me of a possible fraudulent application in a letter dated XX/XX/2022. Upon calling BoA on XX/XX/XXXX, the agent confirmed the account was fraud, and disclosed the last XXXX of the XXXX on the account which I confirmed was not mine. I told the agent I never applied for the card and the application should be cancelled immediately it was fraud. I filed a police report, locked my XXXX credit file and called BoA multiple times in the following weeks to confirm status that the account was to be closed and removed from my credit report. No one told me the nature of how the fraudulent credit card account was used or that a bank account had been opened in my name to transfer funds. BoA made more attempts to contact me in XXXX of which I confirmed multiple times the account was fraud and should be closed. In XXXX, the BoA account entry on my credit report was removed. I assumed the account was closed and no further action required. On XX/XX/2022, I received a letter ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) from BoA stating the following : After a thorough review, its been determined that the funds were credited to your legitimate bank account and you benefited from the balance transfer ( s ) in question. 
I have no record of any transfers to my bank account ( XXXX ) that BoA referred to in this letter. I believe Bank of America had internal knowledge of an additional fraudulent account that existed in my name and purposefully withheld this damaging information for their investigation. I also believe Bank of America was negligent in stopping the application from approving and communicated false information to me in their first letter indicating they will cancel the application if I did not respond within 30 days ( which I responded with 4 days! ). Bank of America has furthermore continued this negligence in a faulty investigation claiming I benefited from funds transferred to a legitimate bank account I had no idea existed and MOST DEFINITELY did not receive any benefit or money. This incident has lasted over 6 months and has caused both me and my family significant distress and impact. I am asking Bank of America to close the account and provide proper compensation for their negligent actions, withholding damaging personal information and then acting upon this damaging information for their benefit. 

COMPLAINT DETAILS On XX/XX/2022, an application for an XXXX XXXX credit card was submitted in my name of which Bank of America contacted me with a letter dated XX/XX/2022 stating I needed to call right away ( ref # XXXX ). Upon receiving the letter, I called XX/XX/XXXX, and told the agent I never applied for the credit card and this application was fraud. She asked me if the name and address on the account was correct and I said, Yes. When she asked if the last 4 of the SSN matched mine I said, Nothats not my SSN. After several minutes, she said the account was confirmed fraud and assured me there was nothing further required for me to do with Bank of America. I think she advised me to follow-up with the recommendations in the letter to report it and lock my credit file. The bottom of the XX/XX/XXXX letter also included the following statement : If we dont hear from you within the next 30 days, we wont be able to complete our review and will cancel the application. 
Based on the agent I talked to and the statement in the letter, I believed I had done everything required of me to notify Bank of America this application was fraud and the account should be closed. 
As of XX/XX/2022 : I had not received any credit card or information about a credit card, I believed I had take measures to properly stop the fraud account from incurring charges, had no idea the fraudulent account had been used at all, or that another bank account had been opened in my name to transfer funds. 
After following the instructions in the XX/XX/XXXX letter, I reported the incident to law enforcement ( Police Report XXXX ), applied for an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and locked my credit files. In the days that followed, I realized the account had NOT been cancelled and indeed incurred charges as my credit file showed an active account with Bank of America ( amount {$4300.00} ). The agent never shared this information with me in the XX/XX/2022 call. 
On XX/XX/2022 I received another letter ( dated XX/XX/2022 ) from BoA stating the following : We Reviewed our records and confirmed the account information we reported to the consumer reporting agencies is correct. Heres what we can tell you based on our review : Weve verified the inquiry placed on your file XX/XX/2022. This means we wont be adjusting our reporting like you requested and consider your dispute resolved. 
This puzzled me because I didnt ask them to adjust anything : I called XX/XX/XXXX to report the account as fraud. I followed up again with a call to BoA Fraud Dept using the same reference number and talked to XXXX who confirmed the account was still confirmed fraud and would take XXXX days to be removed from my credit report. My XXXX credit report app still showed a BoA entry of {$4300.00} on an open account. On XX/XX/2022, I received a call from XXXX XXXX at the XXXX Police Dept who confirmed the police report ( XXXX ) had been processed. 
It is important to note as of XX/XX/XXXX on both calls to BoA, the agents read from the same script saying the same thing : The account has been confirmed fraud. I asked on both occasions what I needed to do and they confirmed there was nothing further required. They said nothing about any investigation into a bank account opened in my name used for transferring funds. I believed the fraud account was closed ( internally ) and only required additional time to be removed from my credit report. 
I continued to receive occasional calls from BoA in XXXX but had difficulty getting through their call menus because BoA wanted a credit card number ( which I did not have ) and my SSN ( which I was definitely NOT going to provide ). On XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX I was able to get through and talk with an agent, XXXX, and told her BoA was trying to call me about a fraudulent account that should be closed. I provided a number that was left on one of the messages ( XXXX ) and XXXX confirmed this number was suspicious and not included in any BoA call tree she had listed. She could not confirm any account for me as closed and responded to my request to be put my name on a do-not-call list. At this point, I believed I was receiving calls from BoA that could not be considered reliable. 
Later in XXXX I also received a letter from BoA ( dated XX/XX/2022 ) stating they had reduced the credit limit on the fraud account. Once again, there was no mention of additional bank account ( s ) in my name or that account transfers had even occurred on the account in question. 
Notifications I received on my XXXX Credit Report App ( related to this case ) : XX/XX/2022 Credit file locked; Alternative lending, Dark web results, SSN trace results XX/XX/2022 Bank of America reported a new account on my XXXX credit report XX/XX/2022 My phone number was found on the Dark Web. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America attempted an inquiry on my credit file but was blocked. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America acquired my credit report from XXXX. 
XX/XX/2022 Fraud alert placed on my XXXX Credit Report. 
XX/XX/2022 XXXXnquiry Dispute Opened with XXXX ( by me ). 
XX/XX/2022 My phone number was found on the Dark Web. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America has flagged the fraudulent account 30 days past due. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America flagged the account 30 days past due on XXXX XXXX. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America flagged the account 30 days past due on XXXX. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America flagged the account as not more than 2 payments past due. 
XX/XX/2022 XXXX scored decreased XXXX points. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America reported a new account on XXXX credit report. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America flagged an account lost or stolen with XXXX. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America account dispute updated. 
XX/XX/2022 XXXX score increased XXXX points. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America reported a new account on XXXX. 
XX/XX/2022 Bank of America reported an account holder information change on my Consumer XXXX account. 
Somewhere in XXXX, the Bank of America account was removed from all XXXX credit reports and my credit score showed a dramatic increase XX/XX/XXXX. I believed at this point I provided Bank of America everything possible to resolve this quickly and the account was closed. However, I did not receive any letter from BoA saying the account was closed. 
On XX/XX/2022 I received a letter ( dated XX/XX/2022 ) stating the following : We have completed our review of your recent fraud claim on the account referenced above. After a thorough review, its been determined that the funds were credited to your legitimate bank account and you benefited from the balance transfer ( s ) in question. As a result, youll be responsible for any balance on the account in accordance with your Account Agreement. 
I filed an additional police report on XX/XX/2022 ( XXXX ) describing the letter above and the alleged fraudulent bank account. 
To date, I never applied for the credit card in question, never used the card, I have no knowledge of any bank accounts created in my name and used for crediting any account I have control over as claimed above. As I understand it, these monetary transfers occurred sometime after XX/XX/2022 before I could act on any knowledge of this BoA credit card on XX/XX/2022. 
Bank of America led me to believe : 1. the application had been stopped, 2. the account had NOT been used, 3. the account was marked as fraud by saying, confirmed fraud on multiple calls, 4. of which I assumed meant the account will be closed soon. 
Bank of America has not ever disclosed any of the following to me : The account is closed despite the letter that clearly states the application would be cancelled. 
The bank account or institution they claim is legitimately mine used with the fraud account. 
The amounts transferred or when they occurred. 

COMPLAINT SUMMARY I believe Bank of America has been grievously negligent in handling this fraud case and withheld damaging information about me and then acted upon this information for their own benefit. I also believe the evidence exists a high degree of probability BoA already knew the account had been approved before I could even respond to the first letter they sent ( XX/XX/2022 ). The subsequent letters and calls from BoA further covered up their negligence of approving the account without proper response or identification of the alleged account holder. Furthermore, BoA escalated the investigation using damaging information about me ( i.e. bank account ( s ) in my name ) that I was not aware existed and have now proceeded to re-open the fraudulent account and demand payment.

The bottom-line is I do not owe anything to Bank of America , Bank of America owes me a significant level of compensation for negligent policies, actions ( harassment, financial stress and emotional impact ), and then cover-up of this entire case. All they needed to do was say ( in XX/XX/2022 ), Were sorry XXXX XXXX for the inconvenience this has caused you and we take full responsibility for allowing an application to approve and transfer funds to a bank account you have no knowledge of. But that didnt happen because Bank of America was determined to follow a path of incompetent procedures and false disclosures. The opportunity to handle this correctly existed but they deliberately chose a path over the last 6 months to ignore the rights of an identity victim and identify the truth in this case. 
Bank of America needs remove any trace of this fraud account from any credit reports they have updated and ultimately be held accountable for these atrocious and grievous actions.

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