Consumer complaint received 2026-02-21 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
I was approached by a group of people outside of my local grocery store asking for donations to help a sick child. They showed me a donation information sheet that looked official and I offered to donate {$20.00}. They showed me a screen that displayed {$20.00} and i handed them my credit card for processing. They tried the card a few times on a card reader attached to their phone and told me it didnt work, and asked if i had another card they could try. I ended up trying 2 other cards before they said it went through. While they were struggling with the card, one of them asked me if i could pull up the square reader website on my phone and asked if they could login. I just stupidly handed them my phone to let them login. I think they did this because they didnt want me to see if any fraud notifications came through while they were running my cards. While all of this was going on they had me filling out my name, donation amount, and email on a sheet so that they could send me a receipt. The sheet appeared to have numerous other donations on it. I guess this was to make it seem legit and to distract me from what they were doing. I feel stupid for having fallen for it but I thought I was trying to help a child in need.

After all of this was done, I returned home and didnt realize there was a problem until later in the day when my banks started sending me fraud notifications. There were multiple charges coming through for thousands of dollars. I let my banks know that I did not recognize these transactions and two of the three banks took care of the problem with no issue. Bank of America, however, denied the fraud claim because " the chip was read, PIN was entered, and/or signed the merchandise, which means you or someone you allowed to use your card was present. There were 2 separate charges for {$2000.00} each that Bank of America allowed to go through, totaling {$4000.00} of fraudulent charges.

I called and filed a police report and filed a complaint with the FTC and then reopened the fraud claim with Bank of America explaining what had happened and providing them with the police report number and FTC complaint number. I also sent a letter with the above information. The claim was denied again for the exact same reason " the chip was read, PIN was entered, and/or signed the merchandise, which means you or someone you allowed to use your card was present.

Im not sure what else to do. By this logic, if I provide my credit card to pay for dinner at a restaurant and the server runs charges through on their phone while they are away with my card, then apparently Bank of America thinks this is authorized use and not fraud because they had my physical card. This is absolutely ridiculous. They are the only bank that has given me any trouble with this issue.

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