Consumer complaint received 2022-09-02
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (NV)

On Friday XX/XX/XXXX, I was at XXXX paying for my parking permit when I went into my bank account Bank of America mobile app and noticed the balance on my savings account to be at around XXXX dollars. I went and saw two transactions done in the saving account, one was {$5000.00} taken from savings at the financial center at XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX, New York XXXX and the other was for {$4000.00} taken from savings at the financial center at XXXX and XXXX XXXX, New York XXXX. I was shocked by the amount and locations of the transactions made since I live in XXXX XXXX and the transactions were done in NY by the teller. I went ahead and immediately called the bank to verify the transactions and to try to figure out what was going on with my bank account. When I called Bank of America the agent was able to verify the transactions made on my savings account. I tried to file a claim and I must have gotten transferred to several different departments since no one could assist with the situation since the money was taken out at a BOA branch office. I finally was able to get to the fraud department and file a case spoke to XXXX from BOA. XXXX had said that there will be an investigation and that the money taken from those two transactions will most likely be put back in my savings in about a week. 
Being afraid that whoever took the money could do more damage than what had already been happening. I contacted the Credit Bureaus and put a security freeze and fraud alert on my credit information. I also made an account with the FTC to allow further protection. I feel I have been a victim of identity theft, and I need to be alert for more fraudulent activity. I had also notified Bank of America to deactivate my current savings and checking account. The following day I went and opened a new checking and savings account with BOA at the XXXX location with agent XXXX to use the little money I had left over for basic necessities. Although this was a very traumatic experience I was content knowing that BOA would take care of the situation and eventually figure out that I did not authorize, or went to withdraw the money since this took place in New York. 
On Thursday XX/XX/XXXX Bank of America decided to freeze my mothers, fathers, and my checking and saving accounts. Not only was I worried about how I was going to pay for my college tuition, but now my parents ' accounts were frozen. They are unable to get into their savings or checking accounts putting them in a hardship situation. My mother only had {$20.00} dollars in her purse and no other means of getting money. My father had just deposited all of his money into his account in order to pay bills and was unable to get any money from checking or savings accounts. Not only do I have to suffer from the effects of identity theft, but Bank of America is putting the whole family in a hardship situation by blocking all of our accounts and not having access to any of our own money. 
We went to the town center branch on that same day, XX/XX/XXXX, and spoke to XXXX XXXX. She was very nice, but unfortunately unable to help since it was the fraud department handling the situation. We were also worried about the case for XXXX dollars since we werent able to identify the cases existence from the meeting and thought the case was dismissed. Luckily, the people from client protection helped clarify that the case is ongoing and that they had found camera footage of the suspect. However, future calls I made to the claims department and then client protection were fruitless for they cant disclose any information about the case without verification, which I cant do since my account was locked. We also went to the XXXX XXXX the following Wednesday and spoke to XXXX XXXXsince no one will talk to me over the phone about the case number. I had to go in person to a BOA branch, but unfortunately he was also unable to help since apparently they do not handle those situations at any branch office. All he could do is just call the fraud department and client protection and wait for someone to answer the phone and ask questions about the case. All they could say is that it will take some time and they do not know or can give us any information about what it is that they are waiting on to make the decision to give us our money back. We understand that Bank of America has decided to stop the relationship with all of us, but they do not have the right to hold my or my parents accounts from getting our own money. The fraud had happened on only my accounts and not my parents bank accounts. Because all of our accounts are linked, Bank of America has chosen to freeze and deactivate all of the accounts, and not allow us access to the banking accounts. 
It is already a hard situation being a victim of identity theft, but to have Bank of America put the whole family under an even more stressful situation not knowing when we would have access to our money to pay the bills and even put food on the table. A police report has been filed, in XXXX XXXX, in regards to the two transactions done in NY, and BOA can look at the footage of the person who actually withdrew the money from the teller and noticed that it was not me since I live in XXXX XXXX and have never traveled to NY. I urge this case to be done as soon as possible so my family and I can have some peace from this horrible situation.