Consumer complaint received 2025-07-21 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I agreed to purchase a townhome and received the legitimate purchase contract and wiring instructions for the earnest money deposit from the developer directly. Shortly afterward, I received a fraudulent email impersonating the developer. This email appeared as part of the same email chain but was sent from a spoofed address nearly identical to the real oneonly the domain extension had changed from XXXX to XXXX. The fraudulent email included the correct property address and same beneficiary name but provided a different bank ( XXXX ) and routing/account number. 
Trusting that the update was valid, I wired {$130000.00} to the account listed in the spoofed email. The fraud went undetected until the title company alerted me XXXX days later that they had not received the funds. I immediately reported the fraud to both my bank XXXX Bank of America XXXX and XXXXXXXX XXXX, the receiving institution. 

After investigating, XXXX confirmed of XXXX critical issues : XXXX. The address provided in the wire instructions was not a valid XXXXXXXX XXXX location. 
XXXX. The beneficiary name did not match any actual account at XXXXXXXX XXXX. 

This confirms that XXXX processed a high-value wire transfer to an account that should not have passed even basic due diligence checks. The mismatch between the beneficiary name and account, as well as the use of an invalid bank address, are both standard red flags for fraud. Had XXXX conducted even minimal verification, the wire should have been flagged or rejected. 

Following the fraud, we conducted a thorough internal review. The developer 's agent and his assistant ( XXXX ) confirmed that the email impersonating them was never received in their inbox. However, when they manually typed in the .cc spoofed address, their email system recognized it, suggesting the scammer may have had access to their system or server. The fact that the scammer copied the assistants real email address on all messagesbut those messages never reached him/herpoints to a likely security breach in the developers system. 
This incident has caused devastating financial and emotional harm. I have kept full records, including : The original legitimate wiring instructions. 
The fraudulent email and wire instructions. 
The complete email thread, showing how the scammer inserted themselves after I signed the contract. 
My broker contacted the title company and they confirmed they does not hold an account at XXXX I contacted XXXX and they confirmed there is not a XXXXXXXX XXXX in the given address and that the address is invalid. 
This was a highly coordinated and detailed fraud, but even so, XXXX XXXX  had multiple opportunities to detect the fraud before completing the wire. The banks failure to reject a transfer to a non-existent customer at a false address is deeply concerning and appears to fall below the standard of care required of federally regulated financial institutions, especially in real estate transactions, where such fraud schemes are well known. 
I respectfully request that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) investigate this matter and XXXX role in failing to prevent a fraudulent transaction that could have been blocked with proper verification. I am prepared to fully cooperate and provide any documentation required to support this case.

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 monetary relief