Consumer complaint received 2022-09-02
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (KS)

At the end of XX/XX/XXXX, i received a bank statement from Bank of America, who i have never had an account with. This statement was for dates from XXXX. It reported a balance of XXXX. Later that evening i received an email from them reporting that my email on my account had changed & if i had not requested this change, to report that i hadn't so i reported on line that i had not made that change. I went to the branch office on XX/XX/XXXX, which was the first day that i was able to go while they were open. I asked to speak to someone regarding this account that i had not opened. I was told that it " happens all the time ''. The woman provided me a XXXX number that i could call & was told that they would take care of everything for me. When asked how this happened, she told me that it was opened online with my name & social security number. She also provided me with a gmail account that had started it. When i left, i did not realize because i was not informed that the number that i was given was just merely a number to file a claim. I waited on the phone for 45 minutes to fimally speak to a live person. The rep, XXXX, was nice enough, asked me all the questions that she needed, then told me that this was to file a claim to dispute the charges & close the account. She provided me a reference number & told me i would receive an email from them in a few days informing me of next steps. I was extremely frustrated by this point because i was told at the branch that i they would take care of the situation. This gave the impression that it would be resolved through my calling the number. She instructed me to call the credit bureaus to place a fraud alert & file with the FTC. I got off the phone & did that. On XX/XX/XXXX, i received the encrypted email informing me of next steps, which was a uniform affidavit for identity theft form to be filled out. In addition, they wanted me to send a copy of my license, social security card, proof of residence, the original account documents that i had received. This frustrated me even further because i, the victim of identity theft, am now being required to provide 4 times the amount of personal information than the criminal who stole my identity. I faxed them the info they needed on XX/XX/XXXX. I never received confirmation back from them that they received it. In the meantime, whoever opened the account had a tax refund deposited into the account & withdrew it. I found this out because of another statement. I gave them a little longer, thinking they would resolve this issue but 2 days ago i received yet another statement in the mail. This one had a positive balance in it but clearly the account was still open so i immediately called the customer service line, only to find it had closed 13 minutes before i called. I called the next day, XX/XX/XXXX & spoke to someone who said that they see that my claim is still being reviewed, that it usually takes 60-90 days for the review process, and that then it should be taken care of & any things that have occurred with this account should be wiped from my name & the account closed. I need someone to explain to me why this is AT ALL ACCEPTABLE. I have to wait 60-90 days with no guarantee that this will be fixed while the criminal was able to open this account in less than 5 minutes & is still able to use it freely and do whatever they choose. My complaint is that i have never been able to open any type of checking account online without showing photo id & proof of who i was. This is completely ridiculous & in no way protects individuals. This needs to be changed. One saving grace that i have is that i received the email regarding my email being changed. Had i not received that & responded that i had not made that change, this individual would have been able to then change the account settings to only receiving electronic statements & then i would have had absolutely no knowledge of anything going on with this account. They then would have been able to write whatever checks they wished, etc which could have then even caused legal issues for me that i would not have known about. Bad business practices all around. They need to do their part to protect honest, innocent people from this happening & when it does, do their part to not make the victim become a victim of theirs as well.