A Bank of America customer says the lender repeatedly denied reimbursement after thousands of dollars disappeared from his account in the middle of the night.
In September of last year, $38,000 was stolen from an account that Justin Chan jointly held with his sister, reports the ABC-affiliated news station KGTV.
The theft happened after a SIM-swapping attack, where a hacker managed to convince Xfinity Mobile to port Chan’s cellphone number to a new device.
With access to two-factor verification codes, Chan says the hacker changed his login credentials and initiated three outgoing wire transfers.
“All these instances occurred within a three-hour period starting at around 2:00am, 3:00am. It was very fast.”
Chan reported the fraudulent incident to Bank of America, but says the lender refused to reimburse.
“Our investigation found the transaction in question was confirmed valid by you via (SMS/MMS) text message response or speaking directly with Fraud Detection Employee.”
Bank of America later reopened an investigation in November but still denied Chan a refund. Chan also presented a letter to Bank of America from Xfinity Mobile saying that his phone number was “likely accessed by a third party as a result of fraudulent activity” but the lender did not respond.
“I didn’t think I would get the money back. It was a very tough situation to begin with. Bank of America was being difficult.”
KGTV says things took a positive turn after the news team continued to press Bank of America on the matter. The lender reimbursed $20,000 and the trading platform Robinhood, where the remaining $18,000 had been sent, refunded the remaining funds.
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