Bank of America doesn't care
I was conned out of $2,000 over the internet. I admit it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done, but I was between jobs at the time and desperate for money. It didn’t seem like I could get screwed with this deal. All I had to do was collect checks for an overseas company, wait until the checks clear, and then transfer the money to a them minus my work fee. Simple right? It didn’t cost me a dime to get started. Before long I received a check and followed the instructions. I deposited the check at Bank of America. Then I checked the account online to see when it was no longer pending (3 days) and I could take the money out and send it to my “employers”. Hey, I wanted to do a good job so I could get more work. Needless to say, after the check was no longer pending, and I transferred the money to the scammers I received notice that my account was overdrawn. I went to the bank, but they said that sometimes the computer allows people with good standing with the bank to withdraw the funds before the bank actually clears the check! I tried to argue that if the check wasn’t clear, they should have either told me when I withdrew the money or left it as pending on their website so I knew not to take out the cash before it actually cleared. They tried quoting things from the agreement when you open an account (everybody remembers reading those right?) that states they have the right to make the account owner liable for bad transactions. I understand that they are a business and are trying to cover their losses, but it’s not fair for a bank to put money into your account after a wait period of 3 days, and then expect you as a consumer to know that the check hasn’t cleared. Why not wait until the 4th day when the check had cleared, or develop an icon on the online banking site that alerts the customer that the money in the account is in fact credit and not actual money. So now I owe the bank $2,000. I have a new job, but I need money to get me to my paycheck. I broke the piggy bank and tried to cash some Canadian money I was given a while back to get me thru, but the bank refused to give me the cash until I could pay them back the $2,000. So my fridge is empty and pretty soon I’ll be living in my car until my paychecks catch up with the bills I already have plus this new $2,000 debt that I don’t think I deserve. They told me that the bank puts this money in your account in “good faith” that the check is good based on the account holder’s relationship with the bank. Well, the banks good faith just cost me everything!!! The police are not able or not interested in tracking down an internet con artist, but I have a neat little police report that says I at least tried to tell the authorities what happened.
Now I’m mad at myself for getting scammed and mad at the bank for making it so easy for good people to get scammed (and being real a-holes about it). I wish I could do something to make the bank change their policies so people don’t get scammed like this anymore.
- they cant be responsible if you fall for a scam especially since there are warning about these scams from your banks and all over the news! It would cost the bank too much money to cover everyone who fell for it. It sucks you have to pay it back, but I'm sure you won't let it happen again!
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