Consumer complaint received 2024-08-06
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Opening an account — Unable to open an account
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (MO)

The following descriptions of a check scam I encountered are generally the same as my previous complaint against Bank of America with a complaint ID XXXX. The only difference is the reason to file this complaint : I would like the relevant team at Bank of America to lift the ban that prohibits me from applying for their checking account again. 

Basically, what happened to me was a check scam. The incident began on XX/XX/year>2023, when the scammer XXXX XXXX first sent a group email to all XXXX physics graduate students to inquire about our interest in being a tutor for his daughter XXXX. Unfortunately, I replied to his email and that's when all the nightmare started. To get the trust and sympathy from me, the scammer XXXX XXXX fabricated the whole story of his miserable family. He claimed that he was a single father and that both his cousin and his daughter XXXX lived off him. He perfectly disguised his real intention at the very beginning to discuss the details of the tutor classes, including the fees ( {$50.00} per hour ), duration ( XXXX weeks ), background knowledge required ( maths ), place ( XXXX XXXX ) and method ( online or in-person ) to teach his daughter, etc. Then, at some point, he suddenly asked me if he could first send a check with a large amount to me via mail and let me return the rest of the amount to him when the class began. Although I clearly told him not to do so, he still sent me a {$3000.00} check money on XX/XX/year>2023 when I didn't realize that this check was a fake one ( this was the first time in my life that I had ever deposited a check, and I had no experience to identify a fake check ). He asked me to deposit that check into my checking account, but obviously, this check was placed on hold by Bank of America since it was fake. He first hypocritically said that this situation was out of his expectations, but it turned out that this was also one of his deception tactics. Shortly after I deposited the check, he begged me to first send him {$650.00} to reimburse his cousin and XXXX for their travel expenses back to XXXX XXXX because they were out of state at that time as he claimed. I easily agreed to lend the money to him because I naively thought no one would commit fraud in finding tutors with students. I used XXXX to make several transfers to the email addresses he provided, but only the {$150.00} transfer to XXXX XXXX ( which I suspect is a fake name ) on XX/XX/year>2023 was successful. Other {$500.00} transfers were all experienced security reviews and were then rejected by Bank of America and XXXX XXXX. He also asked me to make the {$500.00} transfer through XXXX. This transfer was near to success, but fortunately enough, I got notified on XX/XX/year>2023 saying that the check I deposited was fake, and then I immediately cancelled the XXXX transfer. I further confirmed that XXXX XXXX was indeed a scammer because he never replied to my refund request after I finally realized that his check was fake. You may find more details of this check scam in the evidence documents attached to this letter, including the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and all the previous transfer receipts, emails, and messages with the scammer XXXX XXXX. I have also included my XXXX form issued by the US Government to prove my XXXX student status.