Called BoA and report it Customer Service. The Representative stated I should contact the Insurance provider. Closing That Acct for sure!!!
Comments
0
tj
Number shows up in consumer complaints reporting unauthorized charges, supposedly for "life insurance", all made to BofA accounts., all the way back to 2007. Complaints stopped in 2011, yet now this number shows up, presumably on your BofA account statement, similar to the earlier complaints. https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-237-8236
Note the numerous fraud reports, including charges without any agreement to this "insurance", as well as reports that BofA is tellilng their customers to contact the "insurance company" rather than accepting a dispute of a fraudulent transaction.
It appears that BofA has partnered with an insurance company (reports list AIG and other names), and has passed customer information to a fraudulent telemarketer to "sell" this insurance. There is a history of such "bank marketing partnerships" resulting in defrauding of customers, as the telemarketers have incentive to sign up suckers whether they agree or not, and there is nothing to prevent such fraudulent "insurance policies" if the sellers are crooks. Even the various "verifications" provide no security when the seller is using deceptive scripts and there are no consequences to getting caught, since it just appears to be an "innocent mistake".
BofA has a history of this type of fraud. In fact, they were sued in a bunch of class action lawsuits several years ago, including one alleging they were selectively targetting unsophisticated customers some of which were Spanish speaking, "selling" them "credit insurance" that was useless because being retired or unemployed the conditions to actually trigger payout on the policy due to "loss of a job" couldn't even happen.
In these fraudulent scams, the banks commonly have a contract with the marketer indemnifying them from any loss due to fraud (to keep up appearances), but "requiring" that the bank send the victim back to contact the scammy telemarketer rather than the fraud dispute handling required by federal regulations (FRB. Reg. E). The bank bends the fraud disputing rules to help out their marketing partner, thereby pretending nothing unseemly happened.
Indeed, if the victim calls the telemarketer, they will be faced with another hard sell, maybe a runaround over getting their money back, or promises for a refund that never comes, as the 60 day dispute window closes and the scam "insurer" keeps taking money every month, splitting some with their partners, the bank and the telemarketer. In the mean time, the bank has no record of any "dispute", and can claim they "didn't know there was even any problem". No dispute statistics are ever gathered as they would be with normal fraudulently charging businesses.
0
tj
If you didn't authorize the charge, or if they obtained a deceptive "authorization", say, by telling you they were "sending an information packet" after which they started charging, then contacting the same outfit that made them only gives them an opportunity to not only get out of giving your money back, but a good chance at continuing to take it while BofA pretends there is nothing wrong.
Win-win, except for you, but hey, it's fun to play with someone else's money!.
You contacted BofA to report a fraudulent charge. Under FRB Reg. E (checking account electronic charges) or FCBA (credit card charges) you have a right to dispute charges, and your bank MUST investigate that dispute. They should have done so, blocking your account or shutting it down to prevent further theft, and sending you a fraud affidavit to return reporting the unauthorized charges officially, to authorize the chargeback under FRB Reg E or FCBA, and forcing it through the payment system so it counts against the perp company's chargeback ratios. That's how disputes are supposed to act, so that frauds are penalized before they get too big.
FRB Reg. E and FCBA both require that disputes be filed within 60 days of the statement date of the statement showing the disputed charge, to allow the bank to reverse it. Technically you did dispute, on the date you contacted BofA, but they are pretending that didn't happen, so you want undisputable proof. Send a written fraud dispute of the charge to BofA's dispute address from your bank statement, mailed certified for proof of mailing. Include in your dispute that you called BofA to report the fraudulent charge, and on what date. That will cover your a$$, and if push comes to shove you file a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (www.occ.gov) against BofA, and with proof of your timely fraud dispute, they don't have much to stand on, particularly with their past record.
In addition, insist that BofA shut down your account and block future fraudulent charges. Go into a branch and close it there if you have to. Past complaints have reported that even this doesn't stop fraudulent charges with BofA, and that they might pile of "overdrafts" against your closed account, or even roll it over to ("offset" against) your new account. If you have any problems, file an OCC complaint at first problem.
It may also be time to get another banking relationship, before BofA, in their zeal to "insure" you and take your money, also trashed your credit and blocks your ability to open bank accounts at other banks. I suggest opening a credit union account, as being customer owned, they aren't likely to pull this cr*p.
Report of doctored "authorization" recording. "I just heard the recording that i supposedly agreed to the $30 charge per month for this bogus insurance! It sounded so doctored up it wasn't even funny.. Im no tech junkie but i could have done better on my macbook! "
So the question is, can this number be connected with one of BofA's specific telemarketing partners? http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Bank-of-America-and-Customer-Years-Coverdell/internet/Bank-of-America-and-Customer-Years-Coverdell-Insurance-Fraud-monthly-charges-through-my-681471
It appears that back then, the number was associated with marketing of BofA connected insurance through this company. Maybe it still is. http://coverdell.com/ "Coverdell is a leading provider of end-to-end direct marketing services to the financial, insurance and consumer services marketplace.
Offering complete marketing and administration of customized, value-added insurance and affinity membership products, our programs are designed to strengthen your customer relationship and increase brand loyalty, while generating incremental revenue. "
The alleged business is consistent with a telemarketing company set up to work as some partner with other companies to sell to their customers, i.e. "affinity marketing".
"Affinity marketing" has long been a problem area, with a history of allegations of telemaketing fraud perpetrated by call centers faking "authorizations" when they already have customer information. There have been a number of class action lawsuits and settlements with state Attorneys General by companies in this business in connection with consumer fraud. It has also been the subject of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing several years ago.
The next question is, do they telemarket directly themselves, or are they subcontracting that? https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-237-8236/2 "Bank of America offers your contact information to companies like Coverdell (Customer Years) so that they can provide you with services, such as life insurance policies, that you may be interested or benefit from. Of course, Bank of America receives a share of the profits for sharing this information with these companies. You can prevent Bank of America from sharing your information with other companies by contacting the bank and "opting out." Once Coverdell (Customer Years) has your information, they will use yet another company to actually contact you regarding the services offered. This third party company, called GCS, is a telemarketing company. The only contact GCS make with you is, not surprisingly, through a phone call. Neither GCS, Coverdell (Customer Years) or Bank of America have any written confirmation of your agreement to take up the services. The only agreement is a verbal confirmation that you allegedly gave over the phone. Therefore, you should be particularly skeptical if you have been contacted by this number at all!! ..."
0
E. Walton
I contacted BoA about customer years. They gave me 298 dollars of $ 500 plus dollars they owed from 2 years of collecting for Customer Years. They were supposed to stop but I noticed they collected again this month. Now, they a letter asking for the money, back by the third of July! What am I to do?
0
Laura
Helping my mother and father, 74 and 79 years old respectively, to budget for their retirement. Looking over BofA statements for last 2 years to get a good handle on total expenses and what the heck do I find but this Customer Years charge for $19.95 every freakin' month. Will be going into BofA with parents Monday morning to stop this! Might be taking $ across the street to Wells Fargo.
Comments
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-237-8236
Note the numerous fraud reports, including charges without any agreement to this "insurance", as well as reports that BofA is tellilng their customers to contact the "insurance company" rather than accepting a dispute of a fraudulent transaction.
It appears that BofA has partnered with an insurance company (reports list AIG and other names), and has passed customer information to a fraudulent telemarketer to "sell" this insurance. There is a history of such "bank marketing partnerships" resulting in defrauding of customers, as the telemarketers have incentive to sign up suckers whether they agree or not, and there is nothing to prevent such fraudulent "insurance policies" if the sellers are crooks. Even the various "verifications" provide no security when the seller is using deceptive scripts and there are no consequences to getting caught, since it just appears to be an "innocent mistake".
BofA has a history of this type of fraud. In fact, they were sued in a bunch of class action lawsuits several years ago, including one alleging they were selectively targetting unsophisticated customers some of which were Spanish speaking, "selling" them "credit insurance" that was useless because being retired or unemployed the conditions to actually trigger payout on the policy due to "loss of a job" couldn't even happen.
For a look at bank-partnered charge cramming scams, see here.
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/9osBAAAAAAA/ip-smartstep
In these fraudulent scams, the banks commonly have a contract with the marketer indemnifying them from any loss due to fraud (to keep up appearances), but "requiring" that the bank send the victim back to contact the scammy telemarketer rather than the fraud dispute handling required by federal regulations (FRB. Reg. E). The bank bends the fraud disputing rules to help out their marketing partner, thereby pretending nothing unseemly happened.
Indeed, if the victim calls the telemarketer, they will be faced with another hard sell, maybe a runaround over getting their money back, or promises for a refund that never comes, as the 60 day dispute window closes and the scam "insurer" keeps taking money every month, splitting some with their partners, the bank and the telemarketer. In the mean time, the bank has no record of any "dispute", and can claim they "didn't know there was even any problem". No dispute statistics are ever gathered as they would be with normal fraudulently charging businesses.
Win-win, except for you, but hey, it's fun to play with someone else's money!.
You contacted BofA to report a fraudulent charge. Under FRB Reg. E (checking account electronic charges) or FCBA (credit card charges) you have a right to dispute charges, and your bank MUST investigate that dispute. They should have done so, blocking your account or shutting it down to prevent further theft, and sending you a fraud affidavit to return reporting the unauthorized charges officially, to authorize the chargeback under FRB Reg E or FCBA, and forcing it through the payment system so it counts against the perp company's chargeback ratios. That's how disputes are supposed to act, so that frauds are penalized before they get too big.
FRB Reg. E and FCBA both require that disputes be filed within 60 days of the statement date of the statement showing the disputed charge, to allow the bank to reverse it. Technically you did dispute, on the date you contacted BofA, but they are pretending that didn't happen, so you want undisputable proof. Send a written fraud dispute of the charge to BofA's dispute address from your bank statement, mailed certified for proof of mailing. Include in your dispute that you called BofA to report the fraudulent charge, and on what date. That will cover your a$$, and if push comes to shove you file a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (www.occ.gov) against BofA, and with proof of your timely fraud dispute, they don't have much to stand on, particularly with their past record.
In addition, insist that BofA shut down your account and block future fraudulent charges. Go into a branch and close it there if you have to. Past complaints have reported that even this doesn't stop fraudulent charges with BofA, and that they might pile of "overdrafts" against your closed account, or even roll it over to ("offset" against) your new account. If you have any problems, file an OCC complaint at first problem.
It may also be time to get another banking relationship, before BofA, in their zeal to "insure" you and take your money, also trashed your credit and blocks your ability to open bank accounts at other banks. I suggest opening a credit union account, as being customer owned, they aren't likely to pull this cr*p.
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-237-8236
Report of doctored "authorization" recording.
"I just heard the recording that i supposedly agreed to the $30 charge per month for this bogus insurance! It sounded so doctored up it wasn't even funny.. Im no tech junkie but i could have done better on my macbook! "
So the question is, can this number be connected with one of BofA's specific telemarketing partners?
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Bank-of-America-and-Customer-Years-Coverdell/internet/Bank-of-America-and-Customer-Years-Coverdell-Insurance-Fraud-monthly-charges-through-my-681471
It appears that back then, the number was associated with marketing of BofA connected insurance through this company. Maybe it still is.
http://coverdell.com/
"Coverdell is a leading provider of end-to-end direct marketing services to the financial, insurance and consumer services marketplace.
Offering complete marketing and administration of customized, value-added insurance and affinity membership products, our programs are designed to strengthen your customer relationship and increase brand loyalty, while generating incremental revenue. "
The alleged business is consistent with a telemarketing company set up to work as some partner with other companies to sell to their customers, i.e. "affinity marketing".
"Affinity marketing" has long been a problem area, with a history of allegations of telemaketing fraud perpetrated by call centers faking "authorizations" when they already have customer information. There have been a number of class action lawsuits and settlements with state Attorneys General by companies in this business in connection with consumer fraud. It has also been the subject of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing several years ago.
On this page they list their corporate customers, including BofA and many other banks.
http://coverdell.com/partners-and-customers.html
The next question is, do they telemarket directly themselves, or are they subcontracting that?
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-237-8236/2
"Bank of America offers your contact information to companies like Coverdell (Customer Years) so that they can provide you with services, such as life insurance policies, that you may be interested or benefit from. Of course, Bank of America receives a share of the profits for sharing this information with these companies. You can prevent Bank of America from sharing your information with other companies by contacting the bank and "opting out."
Once Coverdell (Customer Years) has your information, they will use yet another company to actually contact you regarding the services offered. This third party company, called GCS, is a telemarketing company. The only contact GCS make with you is, not surprisingly, through a phone call. Neither GCS, Coverdell (Customer Years) or Bank of America have any written confirmation of your agreement to take up the services. The only agreement is a verbal confirmation that you allegedly gave over the phone. Therefore, you should be particularly skeptical if you have been contacted by this number at all!!
..."