UNAUTHOTIZED CHARGE FROM MY CREDIT CARD
Complaint
Dorothy G. Celosia
Country: United States
Please stop the $40.00 monthly charges from my Bank of America Credit card. I have not signed a written agreement with the company. Please cancel the account. I want my payment in March and April 2008 refunded to me.
I already reported to Bank of America about this unauthorized charges.
Thank you.
I already reported to Bank of America about this unauthorized charges.
Thank you.
Comments
allright, i'm done- stick a fork in me....
One Love ~
K.
P.S. they said i would be refunded within 24 hours.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/tYc4K1wNsACmMAjLZ-BuTg
BofA is selling customer account information to Smart Step/Chartered Marketing, part of Intersections Insurance. There is a long pattern of consumer complaints of fraudulent telemarketing against this company on complaint sites such as ripoffreport, 800notes.com and other Do Not Call complaint sites, as well as this site.
Reports include not only Do Not Call violations, but fraudulent claims customers authorized charges, allegations of doctored telephone recordings of supposed authorizations, problems getting cooperation from BofA employees to even disput the fraudulent charges, etc.
BofA is often reported to only reverse 2 months of charges, claiming they have no relationship with this company despite the fact that they are selling their customers information to them. There are also complaints against Chartered/Intersections in association with other banks, such as Citi, but since apparently Citi has required verification of authorization by date of birth, which has not been provided to the telemarketers, the level of fraudulent charge reports is less.
BofA is only requiring recorded authorizations, which can be fabricated or doctored, or they just claim they have one and suggest "you must have forgotten", and many consumers won't challenge their claim but will then accept a partial refund. Some BofA employees do not appear to be aware of problems with this company, but others appear to be actively protecting them from disputes, refusing to accept a fraud complaint, sending the consumer to "resolve" the matter with Smart Step, and refusing to reverse more than 2 months charges.
If you have not gotten a full refund of unauthorized charges, the most effective dispute channel has been reported to be to file a complaint against the bank (BofA in this case) with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, responsible for regulating them.
www.occ.gov
http://www.occ.gov/customer.htm
https://appsec.helpwithmybank.gov/olcc_form/
The other key recommendation is to make sure your bank receives your dispute IN WRITING, with proof of the date they receive it. This invokes several dispute rights based on federal law, which if you don't notify them timely, may leave you with little leg to stand on despite the entirely fraudulent hature of disputed charges.
Contact your bank first to report the dispute as fast as possible, keep notes of your contact, then immediately follow up with a written fraud dispute, send certified return receipt requested to your bank's dispute address, and referencing the date of your original call, to establish timely notification. You will also want to close the account being charged, and be sure BofA is notified in writing that it is being closed DUE TO FRAUD, since they have been known to re-open closed accounts accepting additional transactions against them, tacking on fees.
Maintain a paper trail ("CYA") via written complaints to appropriate authorities (OCC, state AG, FTC, DA), and your odds of recovery are improved. Your adversary wants to keep your money, but wants to hush up your complaint. Do not go away quietly.
Other large banks have also sold their account information, resulting in a trail of resulting fraud complaints. Several sold it to "affinity marketers", with some being sued and reaching settlements restricting their practices. See, for example, this settlement between 16 states, and both Chase and Trilegiant.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/12/trilegiant_chase.html
Telemarketing fraud involving bank customers has been a continual problem. The GLB Act allows financial institution customers to opt-out from the sale of their private information, blocking much of the opportunity for this type of fraud. Take advantage of it.
I called that-0179 number after finding out that they have billed me $20 over the last two years, and its totaling up to almost $500. I talked to a girl named Lydia, first (Sidebar: when you call up there, I find it pretty damn wierd that almost everyone there speaks broken English). I tell her I don't even remember authorizing any kind of transaction like this, especially when I was a full-time student and unemployed at the time. She puts me on hold and returns to tell me that she just reviewed the audio tape, and it was my voice agreeing to the contract. I ask her to play it for me while Im on the phone, but she says she cant - RED FLAG #1. Then I ask to speak to a supervisor, and after being on hold for another five minutes, she returns to tell me that the supervisor is on another call - RED FLAG #2 (wtf kind of establishment is this when the supervisor doesn't do backflips to keep a customer?). The last straw was when she still tried to go on explaining about the services. Why the hell would I care about Accidental Death Insurance, that if something happened right this second, no one in my family or even I would know I had it? They never sent me anything to sign, hell, they never even sent me a pamphlet. Very bad business. My lawyer contacted them with me on the phone and they agreed to refund my money in 2 at least two weeks, but that is still too long for money that wasn't theirs in the first place!
Based on many consumer complaints, BofA has sold them customer account information, and only requires easily forged, doctored, or lost "recorded authorizations" as "proof", unlike other banks which have at least required disclosure of DOB. This has been going on for years, and despite a long history of fraud complaints, BofA hasn't cut them off or changed their authorization policy.
They may claim they can provide a recording, but that doesn't mean they can, or that such an alleged recording even if they could produce one is proof of what they claim. They have complaints of fraudulently claiming to have recordings, doctored recordings, signing up "customers" without even contacting them. Most consumers won't challenge their claims, or will give up when they are stonewalled and only offered 2 months refund.
Some complaints indicate use of a Phillipines call center with even wilder complaints of deceptive telemarketing.
File fraud complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (against BofA for selling your information for use in this fraud).