Saga Of The Check Fraud That Was A BOA Error

We have a checking and a savings account with BOA. We do our primary banking with another bank; therefore, we use BOA mainly as a savings account. We received a folded postcard from BOA notifying us that $38,000 had been withdrawn from our savings account (there was only $13,000 in the account) the notice stated that we should make a deposit within 5 business days of $25,000 to cover the overdraft and we were being charged a $35 overdraft charge.

What bank would allow anyone to withdraw $38,000 from an account with total holdings of $13,000? We didn't remove anything from our savings, in fact on the day this withdrawal occurred we actually deposited funds into our savings account.

We called BOA Customer Service and were given to the Check Fraud Division where we waited for 5 minutes listening to obnoxious music and while waiting for a rep from the Check Fraud Division. The representative at first said "this was a banking error" then she decided it wasn't and would have to be turned over to a fraud analyst.  When we asked when we would have resolution she stated the fraud analyst would call us .  We asked to speak with her manager and were put into a voice mail box and then disconnected.  We called back and got another Check Fraud Dept rep who asked if the  first rep had read us a "disclosure of our rights".  The first rep never said that we would be liable for any further withdrawals from the account if we did not freeze the account. We froze the account.

We spent the rest of the night on the phone contacting the other financial institutions that we do business with as well as putting a fraud watch on Equifax.  The next morning we went into the BOA Banking Center Manager who said, after a cursory review of our account activity, "it didn't happen at this bank" but upon further investigation she determined that it indeed did happen at the local bank.  She said it was a 'keying error". Apparently a customer came in after us and asked to have $38,000 removed from his savings and he asked for a counter check.  The bank removed $38,000 from our savings and gave him the check.  

It appears that the  situation has been resolved (we will believe it when we get a statement showing that our funds have been returned to us and the $35 overdraft charge has been removed).  We firmly believe had we not persisted with the local Bank Manager BOA would never have found their error.

When you are afraid that your identity has  been stolen and your accounts compromised it is very frightening indeed. Dealing with BOA Check Fraud Division compounds the fear because it is like falling into a black hole - no customer service, no follow-up, no communication, no help at all. The BOA Check Fraud Division clearly exists to serve BOA not the customer. Needless to say we are closing our accounts with BOA