Consumer complaint received 2025-08-14 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Non-sufficient funds and associated fees
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Hello, my name is XXXX XXXX and my sons name is XXXX XXXX. I am writing today to explain my dissatisfaction about the poor service, the lack of response we received and how Im very disappointed in the lack of security measures with large purchase transactions taken from Bank of America and about our denied fraud claims with Bank of America, on numerous occasions.

Referencing Claim numbers : XXXX, XXXX & XXXX. I would also like for you to review our claim, the police report information and consider having our funds returned for the unauthorized transactions that occurred from the robbery.

All three claims are related to the same issue that will be described below. My son and I have joint accounts and have attempted to contact BofA numerous times to reopen/appeal the claims through phone calls, emails and in person at the XXXX XXXX branch with the bank manager ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) . The decisions made to deny the claims that were unable to credit back the account were incorrect because both my sons and his friends keys, wallets and debit/credit cards was stolen along with their cell phones. The charges made on my sons debit card and the telephone savings transfer were NOT made or approved by myself nor my son.

On XX/XX/year> just after XXXX, I received three unknown calls and a voicemail. Once I heard the voicemail was my sons voice on someone elses phone saying he was stranded at the beach using a stranger 's phone. I called back immediately. He had explained that his spare key was stolen from his hide-a-key box hidden on his truck while and he and his friend XXXX XXXX were out surfing for a couple of hours. I rushed to his location to find him and his friend sitting in the bed of his truck surrounded by couple of XXXX XXXX parking patrol vehicles and few parking patrol officers questioning them. When I spoke to the parking patrol officers they had said they already called XXXX XXXX Police Department to the scene for a police report for vehicle robbery. As we were not sure what was stolen yet besides the hide-a-key. As soon as I handed XXXX the spare key, the XXXX Police dept pulled into the parking lot on the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
The male and female officers approached us and were questioning the parking patrol officers about what had happened. They had my son open the truck doors and check inside what was missing. The vehicle was completely ransacked. Both XXXX and XXXX immediately said that their wallets, keys and cell phones were missing! Not sure what else just yet. XXXX XXXX ( female ) & XXXX XXXX ( male ) said to not move anything else so they can document and photo the inside of the vehicle. As XXXX XXXX was taking photos and taking the boys statements. XXXX XXXX and I were checking on my cell phone on the XXXX XXXX ( XXXX location tracking app ) and looking to see where XXXX  phone location was. It had said the phone was located at XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX but we were standing in the middle of the parking lot on the XXXX of the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. As we were looking at that at XXXX, I received a text message from BofA saying theres a debit/ATM deduction of {$7700.00} for account XXXX on XX/XX/year>. XXXX XXXX immediately said to go to my online banking and dispute the charge and call the fraud dept immediately. I called the fraud dept from the online banking app and spoke with a female operator with XXXX XXXX to open claim ID # XXXX claim amount {$7700.00} that was being overdraft charged out of my checking account ( ending # XXXX ) because it was denied from XXXX debit account ending # XXXX being charged with insufficient funds. The operator had stopped that transaction for my account. That was the first incident. XXXX XXXX and I were both speaking with the operator and asking her questions about the transactions taking place but we did not know that the transactions were continuing to be processed. XXXX XXXX was speaking to the operator on my behalf as I was full of XXXX  and still shocked at what was happening, and I was told that the claim had been started and the info will be emailed to me. The officers concluded their reports and quick investigation on the vehicle and with the boys and gave me the police report information number and their contact information. I was unable to take any photos of the scene. 
We did not know that this was happening at the time that apparently, the XXXX XXXX kept running the transactions and the charge was doubled on XXXX  debit card again, thats when apparently Bank of America called XXXX cell phone, Im guessing, and the telephone savings transfer for the {$8000.00} happened?! Theres no way XXXX could approve anything if the thieves stole his wallet, debit card, ID, keys and cell phone and hes standing in a beach parking lot!!! Not in the mall XXXX XXXX. ( Why did BofA not ask a million security questions for a large amount like that!!! And why would someone go purchase something for a large amount like that with nothing in there checking account and then have insufficient funds! That should have been a red flag for BofA right there! ) Anywho, later that evening around XXXX is when we had noticed that the {$8000.00} savings transfer and two of the {$7700.00} transactions had been pending on the accounts. Fletcher called to open up the two claims ( XXXX & XXXX ) for disputing the fraud charges for the savings transfer for {$8000.00} and the XXXX XXXX charge {$7700.00} the next day. We were later notified that the XXXX claim was canceled and said to be a duplicate claim of XXXX. The second claim XXXX was closed and said that the transfer in question was made to an account that provided a benefit to a valid signer on the account. That can not be, as the cell phone and debit card were both stolen at the same time! Once those claims were closed, I had called and requested for the information on how the decisions were made to determine all the denied claims. I received XXXX information in return. How can the decisions be made if the police report information was never read or received? Both Fletcher and I have tried to request the police report numerous times and was denied because this is an active case being investigated with the XXXX XXXX detectives. Detective XXXX XXXX can be reached at XXXX. The police report is XXXX XXXX XXXX. I had spoke with XXXX at the police records dept and she can only release the safe sheet of the police report. I have also attached this. We have tried to contact the XXXX XXXX where the thieves had made the fraudulent transactions that occurred in the XXXX XXXX store and the manager had said the only way to receive any information or help is to have the police come investigate so they can show them camera footage and receipts of the transactions proving it was not XXXX and XXXX making those charges. He is a hard working XXXX XXXX XXXX that had saved all that money and now had it stolen from him.

I trust this is not the way that BofA wishes to conduct business with valued customers. I have been with company since XXXX and have never encountered such treatment before. I would like to discuss matters further and have this matter resolved as soon as possible. Preferably resolved by having our account credited back. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation