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How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

soraven.com

21–30 of 261 posts

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#21
post #8

Not sure if you have small claims court in America. In Canada for losses under 10000$ process is fairly straightforward. You should file and follow the process. If they don't give money back, go to the court and execute writ of seizure. One guy did this. http://business.time.com/2011/06/06/homeowner-forecloses-on-...

They would say "we had no choice, it was a court order. The sheriff's department is responsible for the mistake."

Obviously bank didn't even validate SSN:

“Is the last four digit of your SSN not 5189 (not the actual digits)?”

Sounds like brunt of this mistake lies with the bank.

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#22
post #8

Not sure if you have small claims court in America. In Canada for losses under 10000$ process is fairly straightforward. You should file and follow the process. If they don't give money back, go to the court and execute writ of seizure. One guy did this. http://business.time.com/2011/06/06/homeowner-forecloses-on-...

They would say "we had no choice, it was a court order. The sheriff's department is responsible for the mistake."

In theory: the blog's author would counter argue that BoA didn't perform due diligence in checking that the order mentioned the correct person, and even then, they didn't send the notification on time. The court rules against BoA, and it's up to their lawyers to recoup the money.

In practice: BoA pays straight out of their pocket, sends those $3.4K to losses, and shuts this down before the media finds out. And based on the speed of votes this article is getting, they will find out.

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#23
post #8

Not sure if you have small claims court in America. In Canada for losses under 10000$ process is fairly straightforward. You should file and follow the process. If they don't give money back, go to the court and execute writ of seizure. One guy did this. http://business.time.com/2011/06/06/homeowner-forecloses-on-...

They would say "we had no choice, it was a court order. The sheriff's department is responsible for the mistake."

I'm not sure I follow. The legal order required them to withdraw money from someone with a different name and SSN than who was involved in the case?

That's not a winning argument.

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#25
If you know a little bit about legal procedure dealing with something like this shouldn't be too hard.

You'd file against your local bank based on the address of the branch you go to for an order to show cause hearing where they are tasked to show up and show cause as to why the transfer of money should go forward. You'd state the basic grounds of mistaken identity, propose a temporary restraining order barring any further action until the case is heard, and go to the court for a judge to sign the order and give instructions for service.

Once it gets on everyone's radar as a conflicting court proceeding (rather than a customer service complaint) they'd likely quickly get to the bottom of it.

It sounds really hard but it isn't, most courts in bigger cities at least will have an office where you can make an appointment to get free volunteer legal help.

Yes this will burn a couple slightly frustrating afternoons getting it together but it's eminimently possible to do, and an interesting exercise for the average person who enjoys learning how things work.

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#27
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case of a financial crisis the big 4 banks are going to get bailed out. Credit unions and local banks maybe.

It's more likely that the big banks will be bailed in , not bailed out. Which means your money is less safe there. Also, credit unions have a different insurance scheme than the banks, which insulates them from this. Finally, credit unions are more aware of possible jeapardy, and so tend to act more prudently.

Sorry, I don't understand, what do you mean by "bailed in"?

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would say "we had no choice, it was a court order. The sheriff's department is responsible for the mistake."

In theory: the blog's author would counter argue that BoA didn't perform due diligence in checking that the order mentioned the correct person, and even then, they didn't send the notification on time. The court rules against BoA, and it's up to their lawyers to recoup the money. In practice: BoA pays straight out of their pocket, sends those $3.4K to losses, and shuts this down before the media finds out. And based…

Absolutely correct. This is pocket lint to Bank of America. The big banks operate at an absolutely mammoth scale; BoA has 208k employees. More consequential mistakes than this happen by the thousands every day. There is, quite literally, a budget for it.

It is an unfortunate reality for the US that you have to present as a savvy professional, but as soon as BoA is institutionally aware that there is a savvy professional who is at the point of involving a lawyer, I give them ~48 hours to make the decision internally "We're totally paying that" and a total resolution time of under two weeks.

If it were me here, I'd ask for the branch manager at my first visit immediately after getting the run-around from tier 1 CS. I give better-than-even odds that the branch manager can self-resolve this, particularly for a longer-term customer or relationship they'd otherwise have reason to care about. If the branch manager isn't super receptive to that immediately, walk into any lawyer's office and say "I want a letter written to Bank of America saying that they owe me $X plus whatever you charge for the letter." (If you for whatever reason can't afford a lawyer or can't get a lawyer to take you seriously, you can get much of the same effect by saying "Regulation E" on paper. [+])

Your lawyer won't even have to threaten a suit over this. Everyone knows the score here.

(I use to ghostwrite letters to banks. One of my weird hobbies.)

[+] Regulation E governs electronic funds transfers at US financial institutions. People who know that are very dangerous people for banks to annoy, because Regulation E contains a state machine which is very consumer-favorable, and there is an implicit threat of "I bring your operation of the state machine to the attention of a bored regulator who has no joy in their life other than opportunities to hold your feet to the fire for improperly operating state machines."

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely that the big banks will be bailed in , not bailed out. Which means your money is less safe there. Also, credit unions have a different insurance scheme than the banks, which insulates them from this. Finally, credit unions are more aware of possible jeapardy, and so tend to act more prudently.

Sorry, I don't understand, what do you mean by "bailed in"?

A bail-in is when savings are used to finance the bank or the state by turning them into illiquid debt, bank shares, or when they are simply forfeited. This happened in Cyprus in 2013 for example.

Re: How Bank of America Gave Away My Money

#30
post #4

While BofA has its share of blame to absorb here, the specific issue is the lack of support for unusual names such as names containing whitespace. The issue may affect other banks, big or small. I for instance had once to deal with a banking application not supporting non-US phone numbers for 2FA, and yet positioned to serve customers 24x7 globally.

It's not like unusual name support isn't a common issue, but they also had a unique key that they failed to check - the SSN. The name at stake could have just as easily been Bob Smith.

The issue in this case wasn't a technological one, but a procedural one. Third-party withdrawal due to court proceedings is an exceptional scenario - not a regular one. Managerial staff would have had to sign off. Someone had to explicitly decide to ignore all the conflicting information.

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