Bank of America E-Commerce Fraud Department is Out of Control

Bank of America debited my checking account nearly one million dollars, and they flatly refuse to  remove the debit.

This is no joke.

My father, who lives in California and banks with B of A, is traveling in a rural area near Manila, Philippines.   We need to transfer some funds from him to me.  I went to my local B of A branch and was told that an easy way to do that was for me to open a B of A checking account; then my father could do a simple online banking transder. So I opened a B of A checking account with a mere $40 deposit.

Meanwhile, my father scrounged for an internet connection and made an online banking transfer of $1,000 from his B of A checking account to my B of A checking account--legitimate family transaction, same last name on both accounts.

The transaction triggered a B of A fraud alert, and a pop-up window asked my Dad to call a phone number to verify the transaction. He could not call, because his prepaid SIM card minutes ran out (and cannot replenish the for several days until he gets back to Manila).

So B of A Fraud Department debited my account $888,888.88. I am not kidding; I have a screen shot of my online statement to prove it. After spending hours on the phone with B of A trying to get to the right department and being told wrong information (such as "the government put a levy on your account"), I was told that only my father calling could satisfy them. I got a hold of my Dad (because he can receive INCOMING calls) and did a 3-way call to B of A Fraud Dept. My Dad and I, both on the line, told the 'investigator' the situation. The investigator REFUSED to reverse the nearly million dollar debit, saying he will not accept 3-way phone calls.

So here I sit, with an account balance of MINUS almost a million dollars, all because of a perfectly legitimate, simple $1,000 transfer which B of A cannot distinguish from a non-existent million-dollar international fraud scheme.