Consumer complaint received 2024-02-05
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (NC)

My Merill account was hacked on XX/XX/XXXX and I reported my claim to the local XXXX Police and Merill Claims Department on XX/XX/XXXX. I didn't know about the hack until I received my stock monthly statement from Merill at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. I did contact Merill Claims about the hack and found out that my account had been disabled and inaccessible. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call on my cell phone : XXXX, not from XXXX. 

A broker agent from Merrill called me on XX/XX/XXXX, for a courtesy call. He did not mention any unusual/abnormal trading activity on my brokerage account. I did tell this person that I had no access to my account for a long period, months to a year because the stocks I purchased were in lost status. I would keep waiting. Once this message passed over to this agent, I think that's why my account was locked because he knew my account was hacked and disabled my account. It is strange why he did not tell me the problem and what he was concerned about. Assuming he knew the abnormal activity, he should have told me and still had a chance to stop this trade activity to avoid this disaster. 

I returned to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to take care of my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and I did ask my wife to contact Merill/Bank of America representative XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX us communicate with the claims department. 

Merill closed my claim based on the computer IP being the same as the original IP from the date of the hack. I did ask for evidence of what XXXX had told me previously. I learned that the list of evidence shown in his email was wrong as below : 1. The verification phone number, XXXX, they used to verify my fraudulent transaction on XX/XX/XXXX, was wrong. This number, XXXX, was terminated on XX/XX/XXXX. 

2. The supplied internet provided XXXX, XXXX to conduct fraudulent transactions was wrong. My current internet provider is XXXX XXXX and installed on XX/XX/XXXX until now. 

I did ask XXXX to escalate this investigative fraud issue because there were two errors on the same day with my Merrill and XXXX XXXX accounts. I suspect this hack came from the same hacker ( s ). The hacker accessed my account sold my existing high-value stocks and used the cash to purchase cheap stocks, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX all of them XXXX shares were bought and sold in the same two days. 

Why would this hacker do this way? I have discussed this issue with the police. Police said these hackers look like very smart and use this method to profit when stock prices rise and sell in the right way to make profits from the stock market and this way is difficult to catch cash flow. 

I did ask XXXX to submit more detailed evidence such as IP, IPS location, etc.. as well as their verified voice call records to offer to me how to support their decision. I will ask professionals around me to participate together to verify that. Looks like he did not want to be involved too much in my case, he told me Merill would give ma a formal mail for their conclusion. 

Finally, through the CFPB involved, I received a letter from Merril on XX/XX/XXXX, they closed my case because they had not found any computer-based online IP device fraud. Other than that, no more details, just one simple word that failed my claim case.

So far, The nearest response from Merill was on XX/XX/XXXX. In this response letter, it doesn't have any evidence to show me. It is a simple turn-off my claim case letter only. 
I request your organization to help me to find out the evidence for me at this moment. Thanks. 

Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks. 

XXXX XXXX