Consumer complaint received 2022-03-11
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (NJ)

On the night of XX/XX/2022 me and my husband have been scammed by someone pretending to be from XXXX. My husband received a text message saying that we had a charge on the XXXX credit card, and they left a phone number to contact Customer Service. My husband works at XXXX, so we did not expect this to be a scam. They said they were going to transfer us to XXXX XXXX department and they were going to help us to stop someone that tried to made purchases on our behalf. They asked him to download an app, and they were able to see everything he was doing on his phone. They told us to move the money from the saving account into the checking account as someone was trying to take money from us, assuring us they were going to stop that person. In order to do so, they told my husband to do a XXXX XXXX transaction while they were going to block the person that was trying to take money from us. We saw that the XXXX transaction failed, reason why we still believed that they were helping us. The next thing was for them to ask us to get into a website called XXXX and do XXXX  purchases of 14 gift cards of {$300.00} each with the name XXXX. Every time we did that process they were able to see the gift cards number on my husband phone as they had access to it and copied it. It wasnt until the end when they told us they were going to set a fire wall to protect us and asked us to not open the XXXX XXXX or the XXXX XXXX  XXXX until the next day. They also told us that if the bank calls us to say that we made the purchases, otherwise the fire wall would fail to protect us. At that very moment we realized weve been scammed and called the bank immediately explaining the whole situation and canceled our debit cards and one credit card that were compromised a total of {$4200.00}. The next moment we went to the police in XXXX and filed a police report. 
Bank of America accepted as a fraud 2 of the 3 claims we filed. From my credit card it was taken {$300.00}, the claim was accepted and closed while a refund was granted. From my husband debit card it was taken {$2400.00}. The claim is still in research and he received a temporary refund from the bank. While these two claims were accepted as fraud, they denied my claim for the {$1500.00} taken from my debit account, saying it was authorized and that a scam is not a fraud, reason why they would close the claim and no refund was granted. Aside from this, the night I was taken the {$1500.00} from my account, I had a total of {$1800.00}. The same day our landlord was able to charge us the rent of {$1600.00}. At that moment we thought it was a relief that the rent went through first, so the thief wasnt able to charge us the total of {$1500.00}. For our surprise, the bank allowed that overlap on my debit account. Few days later I saw my account was in negative that difference. I asked the bank how was that possible and they say they allow me to overdraft which is not true. When I dont have money in my account the bank will decline any transaction, but this time they failed to do so. When I asked them why they accepted two of the claims and not the third they dont give me a reasonable answer. They say the credit card operates differently. But when I asked why my husband claim on his debit card is considered a fraud and mine not? It was the same fraudulent person and the same operations, at the same time. I had to reopen the claim with the bank 4 times providing them with the police report and the investigator number, and I am still waiting and hoping for a clarification on their. For some reason I get the same answer over and over again. I have also filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission. All these measurements of reporting this terrible event are not enough proof for the bank. So I am filling this to complain about bank of America for making a difference between the 3 claims filled at the same time and for allowing an overlapping and not providing enough explanation. We have also contacted XXXX ( the merchant ) as the bank suggested, but they can not reverse the transactions and asked us to contact the bank. This is not something that we would have allowed to happen as the bank suggested. The bank says that their reason for closing my claim again and again is that they took into consideration the information I provided, my account history and the bank statements. I dont know what that means, as Ive always paid all the bills on time and I have a clean and exceptional record up to date. This was a terrible thing that happened to me and my husband where we lost our savings. We tried to act as soon as possible to stop these scammers from doing this in the future with other people and we hoped that the bank was going to protect us. While this was not something we were aware of, the bank allowed 14 transactions of {$300.00} on our accounts without considering anything suspicions. And the worst thing was the the bank allowed my account to be charged more that the funds available at the moment. From {$1800.00} I was taken {$1600.00} by the landlord and at the same time {$1500.00} by the thief. My question is why was this possible? If I had these money at home no one would have stolen more than the amount I had. And still the bank is closing my claim and not providing a temporary refund while they could investigate more. They refuse to investigate at all and nothing I provide seems to change anything. I have more information I can provide regarding the claims number, the police report, the FTC report as well as the investigator information thats taking care of this if needed.