Bank Of America lies to deny my fraud claim

[bofa victim]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana

It is a long story, but one that I have well documented.

I was a victim of identity theft which has been hard enough, but dealing with Bank Of America for the last month has been traumatic to say the least.

I've been a great customer of BofA since 2001 with an excellent credit score. Someone got my information and started to chip away at it. I had BofA cancel my card (Card #1) on 4/29/08 and send me a new one (I called from my home in Louisiana), but apparently (according to BofA) the thief called in from a California number and somehow talked his way into my account, even though he could not get my mother's maiden name correct (per BofA), and then he added an alternate address to a CA address and had a card shopped there (This is a card with the same numbers as Card #1). He then ran up about 2~2K in charges within a few days on a card with a card number the same as the card that I had already shredded.

I signed an affidavit in a timely fashion and sent it back. I had numerous confirmations from reps that I was not liable for these cahrges do not worry. Then one day I look at my account and there are about 14K of fraudulent charges, so I called BofA and aksed what was up? They said don't worry those charges are to be removed. Waited a day or two then called again to find out that my fraudulent claim had been denied. The investigator (Amanda) told me three reasons why and these had all been confirmed "facts". I told her that I couldn't believe it, and didn't believe, but how could I get this straightened out. She told me, well that might be hard to do, but you could start by calling all of the merchants and settle up with them, she said I was liable for the charges and that there was nothing more she could do, good luck, good bye. There were about 20-30 merchants that I would have to call, so I told her I didn't want to call them since I had already spent most of my month of the phone with BofA! She said , well that sound suspicious, if you really want your name cleared, you would call the merchants and handle it.

I hung up, and started my own investigation. I found out that all three of her "facts" were fabricated lies. I confirmed with 3 merchants (one of them being BofA) and I have written info from 2 of them (BofA wouldn't send me anything since there were "many legalities involved with that")

I called and talked to a manager at BofA and he was going to take the bull by the horns and take care of this. He said the case had been totally mishandled and mislabeled. I stayed in contact with BofA all week, but on the following Friday (week from the initial denial of Fraud claim) I call up BofA to find out it had been denied again by the same investigator for another reason. Once again I call the merchant and find out it is a total lie!!
The claim, after a full day on the phone and the Secret Service involvement is now reopened for review, but I have wasted so much of my time on this company who is threatening to hurt my credit score. They have taken at least month of my life away dealing with this and I want it back. BofA has been tell mis-truths in order to make me pay a legitimate fraud charge.

Do I have any recourse?? They need to stop this.

 

[farmgirl_48732]

That is a nightmare.

I would call the attorney general in my state, call your local state representative, your congressman and your senator. Don't let BOA screw you around. This is not a legal answer but don't give up.

 

[TigerD]

Delete the hyperbole.

Dealing with BofA isn't traumatic. It can be a pain the butt and quite annoying; but not traumatic.

1. Read your card agreement. Phone disputes are not valid.
2. BofA doesn't care enough about you to lie.
3. They might be too lazy or to convinced of your participation in this to investigate; but the corporate policy of BofA isn't to lie.
4. I find it hard to believe that you got the Secret Service to investigate your claim of ID theft.
5. They haven't taken a month of your life. You might have spent a few hours on the phone and you will have to spend quite a few more hours. On average it takes more than 120 hours to fix an identity theft situation. But that isn't BofA's fault either.

DC

 

[bofa victim]

Dealing with BofA isn't traumatic. It can be a pain the butt and quite annoying; but not traumatic.

1. Read your card agreement. Phone disputes are not valid.
2. BofA doesn't care enough about you to lie.
3. They might be too lazy or to convinced of your participation in this to investigate; but the corporate policy of BofA isn't to lie.
4. I find it hard to believe that you got the Secret Service to investigate your claim of ID theft.
5. They haven't taken a month of your life. You might have spent a few hours on the phone and you will have to spend quite a few more hours. On average it takes more than 120 hours to fix an identity theft situation. But that isn't BofA's fault either.

DC


1. You say phone disputes are not valid. BofA refuses to send me anything in writing due to the "many legalities".
2. BofA certainly doesn't care enough about me to lie, but they care enough about 14K to lie
3. Not telling the truth is to lie. They did not research the charges as they said, they just made up the facts and told me to figure it out. Laziness, probably true, but they could be lazy and say that it was a valid fraud claim
4. Fortunately, I do have the secret service and local authorities involved. They've been in contact with BofA and the merchants involved. The Secret Service is looking for the thief/ thieves, not involved with the BofA fabrications.
5. The identity theft problem will take many hours to repair, however this entire sideshow consuming at minimum 30 hours on the phone with BofA, plus hours on the phone with merchants has been traumatic and interruptive to me and my family. It's exhausting to have to worry about not only fixing this identity theft problem but also to defend myself against a lazy(?), incompetent, untruthful corporation. They are the one's who sent the thief or thieves my credit card in the first place. And this is after he couldn't get my mother's maiden name right.