Help! My credit card fraud claim was denied.

[leftyladyfrommo]

BofA raised my credit limit because a 3rd party requested it. They raised it to $15,000 and then the 3rd party charged $15,000 against my card. I called them first thing in the morning and reported it.

My whole identity was stolen. Not just my credit. I had to change my phone number and that has been just a mess.

Do I need to get an attorney specializing in credit card fraud? I can't pay this. It's not mine so I wouldn't pay it anyway.

I am lost.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. Did you call the police?

Your identity was stolen, file a police report and then use that police report as evidence with the CC company.

[JCMach1]

15. Yep, step 1 report stolen identity and get official police report

Give said report to annoying CC company.

[JI7]

2. They denied it right away ?

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Yes. And then they reopened it and

denied it again.

This is a huge bank and that's a lot of money so they will drag this out as long as possible.

[Dennis Donovan]

5. self-deleting above - misunderstood OP

[Tadpole Raisin]

6. That's nuts and so outside your normal purchasing routine it should have

automatically been flagged. I’m sorry this happened to you. You’d think the credit card company would want to help but they seem more interested in refusing to give you any information which would help show their complicity.

Sounds like a lawyer will be needed. They probably won’t respond otherwise.

I hope you’ve closed your other accounts and if possible added a notation to the credit bureaus of the theft. Good luck!!

[CrispyQ]

7. I'd call an attorney.

It sucks you have to spend money on that but they will know more about how to handle this situation than you do & may save you a lot of time & grief.

To Everyone: PUT A SECURITY FREEZE ON YOUR CREDIT ACCOUNTS! You can take them off when you're going to apply for a loan.

https://www.equifax.com
https://www.experian.com/
https://www.transunion.com

From Google:

You can freeze and unfreeze your credit reports at Experian, TransUnion and Equifax online, by phone or by mail. The online option is the fastest and easiest. You have the right to add a security freeze, more commonly called a credit freeze, to all of your credit reports for free.

[Tadpole Raisin]

10. Yah I did that - I feel so much more secure. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Why was it denied? What did BofA say?

[Prairie Gates]

9. They can't deny it

If you charge fraud, they have to accept it as fraud or follow through with charges of some kind against you.

You can call your state's attorney general and review with them.

Honestly, what you're describing (opening cases, accepting or denying claims) is not really how credit card fraud department work. If you know who the third party is and you refuse to work with the bank to press criminal charges, then of course they can argue that you ultimately approved of the charges. But that's the only way they can "deny" a fraud claim.

[Silent Type]

11. Probably best to get an attorney. You might have to go after the 3rd party for the scheme. Good luck.

I've had several credit cards stolen out of my mailbox. Within hours the thieves charged $5,000 and $10,000 all over town. The bank reversed those immediately.

[EuterpeThelo]

12. I'm sorry this is happening to you

Before you spend money for an attorney, have you tried escalating the issue to BofA management rather than just going through the flunkies in customer service?

Please try this first. I'd start with the primary contact here and cc the secondary one.

Bank of America’s executive customer service contacts:

Primary Contact
Ashley Ross
Head of Client Experience
100 N. Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC
[email protected]

Secondary Contact
Michael Patrick
Executive Escalations
100 N. Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC
[email protected]

Additional Contact
Holly O’Neill
Chief Client Care Officer
100 Federal Street
Boston, MA 02110
[email protected]

Chief Executive
Brian Moynihan
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28255
[email protected]

Info courtesy of Elliott Advocacy. I've used their data countless times to get issues with a company resolved. Here's their whole page on BofA. It also includes their social media sites, and I've had good luck with using that tool as well to publicly call out a company and get them to reply when they wouldn't answer e-mails.

https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/bank-of-america-customer-service-contacts/

Good luck, and I hope this helps!

[a kennedy]

25. Holy crap!!!! That's a lot of people involved in consumer complaints eh???

Good luck, and hope it gets resolved quickly.

[leftyladyfrommo]

13. Thank you. That's very helpful.

As luck would have it, I stopped at my bank and the manager came out . Turns out he had just come out of a bank meeting on bank fraud. He used to work for BofA and was in the mood to do battle. He said banks are just getting killed.

He said he would negotiate for me because I'm not good at it. I get too upset and rattle easily. So I am getting my stuff to take up there on Monday.

[FakeNoose]

28. It sounds like this bank manager is going to save the day for you

Best of luck! Let us know what happens.

[RobinA]

14. I've Never

in my life been made to pay for a questionable credit card charge. They just send me a new card.

[Prairie Gates]

18. The only time the customer is made to pay

Is when the fraud is committed by somebody they know and they refuse to press criminal charges. That's considered tacit acceptance of the charges.

BofA does not charge the customer for fraudulent use of a credit card.

The description of events in this thread is not really consonant with how fraud departments work, or even credit card statutes in most states. The question of who the "third party" is will probably be of crucial importance.

[Sogo]

16. Won't help you now, but everyone should put a freeze on their information at the three big credit reporting agencies:

TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. When you apply for something that needs access to the information, you can temporarily unfreeze it.

[Sogo]

17. "BofA raised my credit limit because a 3rd party requested it."

This doesn't really make sense....A "third party" requested your limit be raised??

It sounds like any fraud would be on B of A for raising the limit at the the request of someone besides you!

[Prairie Gates]

19. No, it does not make sense

Unless the third party was making the request from the cardholders line and had a great deal of the card holder's information (i.e., a relative or friend).

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. The 3rd party hacked into and stole

My AT&T account . My phone had no service. I headed over to AT&T and they filed a fraud report and closed down my cell number within probably 1 hour.

[forthemiddle]

21. Who is the "3rd Party "?

That is the missing piece of information.

[Demsrule86]

23. Probably a hacker...I had someone steal my identity and try to max out

a credit card...but thankfully my bank. caught it. You know much of our information was released by Musk and his DOGE asshates. I locked my credit down.

[Prairie Gates]

24. Indeed

[Tadpole Raisin]

26. When you get your new phone go into the app

and lock the SIM card. It’s very easy and was mandated that all cell phone companies provide this some time in 2024 (but NONE of the companies notified their customers). It was very odd and I discovered the feature by accident.

At the bottom of the main page in the app go into the 4 little boxes to the right of the home icon. It will take you to mobile security. You look for wireless account lock. Follow the prompts and swipe to lock. Now no one can steal your sim and hack your phone. They can’t go into a AT&T store and sweet talk the worker into accessing your information claiming to be you.

You also will be limited (can’t search for a new phone or change your plan) but then you just unlock it to perform those tasks and then relock it.

FYI recently that feature wasn’t functioning properly. It said it was locked for me but when you went into the security page it said you had to be on a phone associated with the account to do anything. I was!! There were lots of complaints on the app. It appears to be resolved now and I locked mine again last week but from now on I’m checking it more often.

Good to hear your banker is advocating for you!!

[Demsrule86]

22. You need to call the police and appeal the rejection...you may need a lawyer.

[DBoon]

27. I had a similar problem years ago

I don't know if this still works, but I found a well documented complaint sent to the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC) got the bank's attention

[Self Esteem]

29. I worked in fraud at a major credit card years ago...

When fraud is reported, the credit card will do their due diligence and investigate the charges. This generally results in speaking with the card member, asking them questions about the charge and then requesting information from the merchant related to the charge.

Denied fraud claims are almost always due to the customer refusing to send in specific information requested or it comes back that the merchandise was in fact purchased by the card member (signature matching, the goods were delivered to the address associated with the card).

What I want to know:

1. You claim a third party requested a credit line increase. Did they do this on the website or by calling into the call center? If so, I'm guessing they pretended to be you - is there a record of contact with this third party? In situations where you're investigating what is called 'account takeover' type attributes (meaning, a fraudster called in and changed the info on the account - anything from address on file to requesting new cards or credit line increase), you generally will listen to the call to see if it matches previous calls or if there's anything suspicious about the caller (hesitation answering questions).

2. When a claim is denied, you're told why it's denied. What was their reasoning for denying the claim? If they denied the claim, their fraud investigation team believes you're responsible for that charge. I'm not saying they're right but they don't just blindly deny claims. Reasons for denying claims (beyond what I listed above): you gave someone permission to use the card, you know someone who used the card but don't want to press charges or you bought something and didn't get what you were promised so you claim fraud).

3. Did you file a police report? If you filed a police report, did you give Bank of America the case information?

[Prairie Gates]

30. Exactly right

I've been more or less saying the same throughout. Many commentators have wondered openly whether the OP has any relationship with the so-called "third party," and the OP has refused to answer for some reason. I'm going to guess family member or other personal relation. The fraud department requested that the OP pursue criminal charges, which the bank would assist with. The OP declined. If you worked in a CC fraud department, you've seen this sort of thing many times. Kids with drug problems. Exes with info. Happens a lot. If you don't press charges, you're on the hook for the bill. This isn't complicated, nor is it bad dealing by the bank.