Consumer complaint received 2017-12-08
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 (NY)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered my XXXX rent check for {$1100.00} had been fraudulently cashed into a XXXX XXXX Bank Account, other than my leasing company. Upon realizing this I immediately reached out to my bank ( Merrill Lynch XXXX XXXX ) to initiate a Check Fraud Claim. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a XXXX XXXX XXXX that required both myself and my apartment leasing company to fill out and acknowledge that they were not in receipt of the check. I immediately sent this back to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and was told upon receipt and processing my claim would kick off ( this occurred around XX/XX/XXXX ). For the next 4 months, I continued to reach out and request updates on the claim, until I was essentially told to " wait and see '' by the fraud team. Eventually, I was told that if I had n't heard anything by around XX/XX/XXXX to call back as this would have been the 126th day of the claim and would move into a new process if they could not reclaim the funds from XXXX XXXX. At that point, I was told that " systemically the case would close '' as it had reached its 126th day, but that they would still be working to recover the funds. I expressed concern that it would be showing as closed and was fearful that it would then fall through the cracks. Since XX/XX/XXXX, I have been requesting call-backs and information from XXXX XXXX on the status and have not received any information via mail only after several calls to request a call-back. Eventually on XX/XX/XXXX, I went into a Bank of America Branch location to speak to a Client Services Representative, she was able to look into the check and reach out to a contact at XXXX XXXX who confirmed that the check had in-fact been deposited into an account other than the one listed on the Check. Upon receiving this information, she informed me she would share with the XXXX XXXX/Bank of America Fraud Office to  help resolve the claim. Since then, I have consistently reached out for updates on the claim - leading up to today, XX/XX/XXXX, when for the first time someone at Bank of America told me they had officially stopped trying to recover the funds and there was nothing else they could do since XXXX XXXX did not respond to the inquiries. 

Since then, I filed a CFPB claim to directly contact XXXX. XXXX was quick to action the claim and even reached out to me directly on XX/XX/XXXX stating that they were willing and able to refund the amount, but had never received any attempt by Bank of AmericaXXXX XXXX to recover the funds, and thus needed the Affadavit paperwork I had signed in submitted back in XXXX of 2017 before they would be able to send the funds back. 

I then began working again directly with Bank of America to connect the dots and provide the individual from XXXX directly with someone who would be able to provide that information. After a couple back and forth conversations with various Bank of America representatives I was told on XX/XX/XXXX that there was no claim in their system regarding this check fraud incident. Therefore, I am incredibly confused/frustrated as to what the representatives were seeing and telling me throughout my conversations over the past 11 months.