Consumer complaint received 2026-02-21 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: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I was contacted by Bank of America 's security alert via text, stating that they had received a request to transfer {$730.00} via XXXX to an XXXX XXXX in Florida. Was this you? I responded no they responded back saying that my account was locked and and Bank of America representative would be contacting me. They then sent me another text stating that's a representative. Tried to call me and wasn't able to connect. If you're ready to receive this call, reply yes, which I did. 10 minutes later a call came in from there same number as the Bank of America security alert, the person on the phone was stating that my account had been compromised but your funds were safe, I could see all my funds were still showing in my online Bank of America online app, ,he said yes they are still there but my account had been locked because of possible security breach, it was an internal investigation and they wanted me to wire transfer funds out of my account to another account which they had me create on my online app which I did. But then I told them I'm not comfortable and transferring {$8500.00} by wire to A routing number and an account number. They said we understand and they put me on hold then they said they were transferring me to a supervisor and another phone, and another phone rang in while I was on the phone saying it was Bank of America. They instructed me to take the call and hang up on this call and take the incoming call, so I did, This person identified himself as a fraud supervisor and he wanted me to go to the local branch which was XXXX mi away from me in XXXX XXXX, California, he said that at that time somebody was trying to compromise my account down in XXXX  XXXX, California at a Bank of America branch using my identification but they didn't have complete identification. They only had the last four digits of my social security number so he wanted me to go to the local branch and withdraw {$8500.00}. He instructed me not to say anything to the tellers. He would call the bank manager and let them know I was coming. They wanted to see how the bank tellers were going to respond to me. withdrawing {$8500.00} in cash, because they wanted to see if they had a an internal breach with so I drove to the bank and withdrew {$8500.00} the whole time I was on the phone with this so-called fraud supervisor for Bank of America , I received the funds in cash and proceeded to leave the bank and get in my car, then the supervisor on the phone then instructed me to create a Bank of America business card in my XXXX XXXX on my phone which I did, he then instructed me to take the {$8500.00} to the ATM machine which was outside the branch that I just withdrew the {$8500.00} in cash at the XXXX XXXX California branch XXXX I told him that I haven't used an ATM for more the 20 years and he walked me through the whole process over the phone, by using that XXXX XXXX Bank of America business card and tapping on the corner of the ATM to open the account, click on deposit enter {$8500.00} and insert the cash the ATM wouldn't accept {$85.00} {$100.00} bills so he had me take {$1000.00} out. Put it in my pocket and put in {$7500.00} into the screen on the ATM and then deposit 75 {$100.00} bills into the machine I attempted to do that but the machine only took 70 of the bills and spit back five of them because of either upside down wrong way or the corners were bent. He said take those 5 {$100.00} bills and put them with the other {$10.00} {$100.00} bills in your pocket. Complete the transaction for {$7000.00} and ask for an email receipt so I did then he said now tap again on the corner of the ATM deposit of {$1500.00} and insert the 15 {$100.00} bills which I did. He said complete the transaction and ask for an email receipt. He said you're done. go back to your car and go home the whole time. He was still on the phone with me when I got home. He instructed me that somebody would be calling me tomorrow and that your funds would be held in that account and be monitored along with your account to make sure that nobody tries to compromise the rest of your money in there which was about {$1100.00} left in my account. He said that I would receive an email stating what transpired today from Bank of America and my funds would be returned within a couple of days to my existing account, The whole call lasted 2 hours and 9 minutes. 
The next day. I never received a call or an email, I checked in my XXXX XXXX  wallet and the business Bank of America card account along with Bank of America debit card had disappeared from XXXX XXXX, This was on the next day on XX/XX/XXXX when I called Bank of America customer service line on the back of my debit card,. They instructed me that they had not sent any alerts when I said I wanted to report a fraud. Then because I was scammed out of my {$8500.00} thinking that it was them that was sending me the alerts. They said that we don't send alerts with phone numbers and that you willfully participated in a scam and they couldn't open a fraud claim, they said they couldn't do it because you willfully participated, and withdrew {$8500.00}, And that's all they could see and that they didn't see any transactions for the ATM. I told him because it wasn't my account. It was an account that I thought was your fraud department, And that because of that it wasn't your account. They have no ability to see that and know where the funds went, he then told me that he would forward all this information to the fraud department and that they would be able to investigate the ATM, the camera footage and the digital XXXX XXXX  Bank of America business account possibly but they weren't sure because it was a scam and not a fraud. They said I needed to contact the local police department and file a police report which I did, And the police department would create a case number for Bank of America to be attached to your fraud claim The officer told me that they were going to go down to the Bank of America branch the next day on the XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX and ask for the video footage of the ATM and any information pertaining to a transaction at that time from the withdrawal and any activity within minutes at the ATM outside that branch at XXXX XXXX, California, The officer said that since you filed the police report and you have a case number that Bank of America which he wasn't sure of because she only dealt with XXXX and XXXX XXXX would start their due diligence on the fraud case and your money should be returned to your account while they're investigating it. On Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to the officer who filed the police report and the case number and asked her if she had heard anything from Bank of America. She asked me have they returned your funds while they're investigating it? I said no. She says you need to contact them so I contacted the customer number for the ATM fraud department, And they inform me that no claim had been filed and that I needed to go to the branch that a transaction 's took place at and file a fraud claim there at XXXX XXXX, California. So I drove down there. The bank manager told me that I had to have an appointment for that but they would come contact customer service and put me in an office to talk to them. I talked to a representative extensively. They told me that there was no claim filed because it was a scam and not a fraud. I did some researching while I was on the phone with him and found that they can file a fraud claim based on Regulation E based on their loophole saying that your were scammed and authorized the funds to be deposited to an unknown account that they didn't have authority to access when the the police officer had told me they had a breach of the their security alerts cue and that they had acquired my phone number and because of your semantics with the scammed versus fraud that you could file the claim as a fraud and that your FDIC insured and you should be able to return my funds in a timely manner while you investigate this because the ATM has all the metadata, the card number has a trail of where the money went, especially since it probably was transferred out of your Bank digitally and the {$8500.00} cash was in the record for the ATM teller to access that day, minutes after I made the cash withdrawal inside the XXXX XXXX California branch according to the police, And that you should attach this police case number to that fraud claim. He put me on hold then came back a few minutes later on the phone and said that he talked to his supervisor and that they were sorry that they had no way of filing the claim because you for will fully scammed due to your negligence. You authorized the transaction but there has been an alert set up and they are investigating. It's just that we can not file a fraud claim and if you're not okay with that, I have to hang up on you. I told him I'm going to have to contact the CFPB next, he said well that's what I'm going to have to do. I'm going to have to hang up on the call now. So in closing I was wondering if they had violated federal law by not investigating under Regulation E stating that in XXXX, a customer that had been tricked into thinking that it was the banking institution is not considered negligent and can not be held liable for creating a fraudulent access device such as a XXXX XXXX  digital card and should be filing my fraud claim? 
Please let me know if there's any hope for recovering my funds.

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