Consumer complaint received 2024-10-09 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
On Saturday XX/XX/XXXX {$1800.00} was stolen from me. I was walking in XXXX and three guys stopped me to talk about some basketball charity. I was going to walk away but they talked me into sending them money through XXXX. My face ID logged me into my bank of America app and they snatched my phone out of my hands and proceeded to withdrawl all the money from my checking account to theirs through XXXX. I had to fight to get my phone back but there was three of them and by the time I got my phone back they ran off and all the money was already withdrawn. 

Because it was a XXXX transfer the transaction was automatic. I told the police right after it happened, but as I was filling for fraud on the phone XXXX  got up from their spot and left. I reported that they didn't help me 10 days later to 3 other police officers while I was filing for a police report. 

Before I filed for the police report my fraud claim went through and was denied. BOFA said that I verified the transaction because of the verification number that's required when making the transaction and the fact that I didn't have enough evidence to prove that my phone was stolen. 

After I finally got the copy of my police report I sent the complaint number and pdf of the police report sent to me by a detective that was working to solve similar zelle scams. However they sent a letter to my home address stating that they could not give me back my money because I verified the transaction due to the vertification number. 

There's a couple errors in their judgement. When BOFA sends the verification number it's easily accessed because it shows up in the keyboard on top where the autocorrect function sits, so all the user has to do is press one extra button. Another flaw is the fact that my phone was unlocked and in the hands of the thief who was joined by two other men. They aruged I didn't have evidence, but I sent a whole police report to them which apparently wasn't good enough. 

The crime is considered grand larcency due to the amount that was stolen. I am a college student and all the money they took from me was from my first paycheck from my internship. I had less than XXXX dollars in my account before that paycheck. Becuase of what happened I've needed to pick up an extra job in order to recouperate my loss, and dealing with the whole situation has been very stress inducing during my upcoming school year. 

BOFA customer service also promised me they would follow up on me after 11-14 days of me reopening my case if they hadn't already solved my case and give me all the money that was stolen from me back in the form of credit. This never happened. 

To reiterate, here is a summary time line of what happened : 1. I got stolen from 2. I filed for fraud 3. My claim was denied 4. I filed a police report 5. I sent the police report 6. I wait for a few weeks 7. they deny my claim again

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