Consumer complaint received 2023-11-03
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (NY)

My spouse and I have a credit card with Bank of America. We don't use the card because the interest rate is too high and we have other credit options. Just after midnight on XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notification email from our credit monitoring service that indicated that our credit usage had increased and that it had lowered both of our credit scores. We checked the bank 's website and confirmed that someone had used {$8500.00} in credit and had racked up a cash advance/balance transfer fee of {$250.00}. We retrieved both cards from the safe and immediately reported the fraud to Bank of America. 

The representative said that the funds had been transferred into a XXXX XXXX account on XX/XX/XXXX and that the request had been made via phone. We made no such request and the last XXXX digits of the receiving bank account are not related to or owned by us. We live alone. No one else has access to our home. We have a security system to ensure that is the case. 

The representative spoke to my spouse and explained the investigation process. The bank would issue new credit cards and would perform an investigation. The charges would be removed while they looked into the matter. Our website access would cease to work for a short time and then we would have access again. The bank would send out a letter requesting a written statement in the next few days and we would need to do that within 10 days. My spouse informed the representative that we would be going out of town for 5 days beginning on XX/XX/XXXX, but that our mail would be held at the post office. We asked about filing a police report and were told that we might want to do that. We initiated that online process the next day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and then followed up with an in-person visit from a police officer on XX/XX/XXXX. 

While we were out of town, we checked our mail remotely through the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX which allows you to view the envelopes included in your daily mail delivery. This also allows you to see what mail the post office is holding on your behalf. We received nothing from Bank of America until XX/XX/XXXX. That envelope contained the replacement cards. On XXXX, we received XXXX envelopes from the bank. The first was dated XX/XX/XXXX and explained that they were opening an investigation. The second was also dated XX/XX/XXXX and requested a written statement. The third was dated XX/XX/XXXX and stated that they had closed the investigation and had determined that we were responsible for the fraudulent charges and that the funds went into an account that we control or own. That is patently false. The letter also stated that we had the right to view the evidence that they obtained as part of their investigation. We have the scans and emails from the XXXX, proving that these were delivered on XXXX and that we were afforded no opportunity to provide any evidence. 

After receiving the letters on XXXX, my spouse called Bank of America to follow up and the representative reopened the case. We also filed a report with the FTC on XXXX and forwarded that report to the bank. At this point, we have little faith that the bank will perform a proper investigation.