Normally I’m all for Fraud Protection and security and all that stuff. But Bank of America takes it to an awful new level.
I was doing some online Christmas shopping while watching a movie here tonight. On one of the purchases my Bank of America MasterCard was rejected, so I used another card.
Then Bank of America called me on my cell phone to see if it was really me, and to unlock the freeze they’d put on my account. I had to answer the typical security questions, SSN, DoB, Mother’s maiden name, recent charges, etc…
Then they started asking some fun ones:
“What are the names of the two golf courses nearest to where you lived in Kenmore, WA?” First of all, that’s like 5 years ago, secondly I’ve never been golfing. I know where the nearest coffee shops always are, but apparently that doesn’t count.
“What are the full names and street addresses of five neighbors?” I have no idea. I just moved here, and I’m not a super neighborhood kind of guy.
And so on. And if they managed to ask a question that I actually knew the answer to, they ended up having bad data on their end. Apparently my SSN was issued from a state we lived in after we moved away from where I was born, so they didn’t believe me that I was born in Minnesota. And so on.
I spent over 30 minutes of my evening attempting to convince the people who called me, that I was really me.
That pretty ridiculous and kinda funny too. Who would even know the answers to those questions?!?! You should have come and had more fun losing miserably at trivia!
hey, just googled “bank of america fraud protection sucks” and found this. just got done with 30 minutes of the same merry go round, but now have to go to an actual banking center with multiple forms of ID to unlock the account. This will end up costing BOA customers, Chase offers so much of a better experience its a bit unreal. John Paulson should reconsider his huge investment in these guys, their commercial side is a joke.
Well I walked into a BAC branch, showed my ID, and withdrew money from my joint business account in wich I was a co-signer on. My ex partner filed a fraud complaint and BAC Ingenious solotion was to crdit the account without even looking @ the account history to see if a fraud actually took place. My ex-partner withdrew the credited money and left town leaving a negative $3,000!!. Great investigating!!! It would have taken all of a second to find out that the money was withrawn by a co-signer on the acct. & @ a branch location. So If you want free money from Bank of America, just say your missing thousands of dollars and they’ll give it to you. P.S you going to have to run leave town. lol
i had to cancel my bofa account because of the fraud protection department. they started freezing my card about once a month. then it turned into once a week, then every time i used my card it was frozen. the people at the fraud department were sarcastic and rude accusatory. when i tried to establish a record of who i had been communicating with, they’d give me fake names and extensions. i’d frequently get booted off hold.
and now wikileaks is about to dump a whole bunch of files on these Aholes… popcorn ready.
I recently had a fradulent charge of over $2,000 placed on my Bank of America MC, and the only reason I knew about it was because I check my account online frequently – Bank of America never contacted me.
The charge was for a supplier of hardware for the military and the aviation industry, which I have never done business with (nor with any other similar companies, as my credit card is a regular consumer credit card, not a business card). This did not send up any red flags for Bank of America.
By contrast, a couple of months ago I placed a charge of less than $200 on my card from a store I have shopped at before (just a different location one town over), and that resulted in my account being frozen.
Bank of America really needs to get its collective mind around what actually constitutes a legitimate red flag for a suspicious transaction – right now they just ignore the large and truly suspicious transactions and shut off your card when you make a small, typical purchase of a type you’ve made before.
I’ll be getting rid of that account very soon.