Bank Of America: The Arrogance And The Negligence
(The Sorrow And The Pity are all mine.)
The Sorrow: at how Bank of America's spectacular negligence led to over a month being sucked from my life, my peace of mind being taken from me, and how I will, perhaps for the rest of my life, be in jeopardy of arrest...all because they didn't do the most minimal amount of verification in the SEVEN times thieves used a fake driver's license in my name, with the wrong expiration date, to get thousands of dollars of my money from Bank of America's tellers.
The Pity: that I assumed that a major, major bank, the biggest bank in the USA, in fact, would have security measures in place that are a bit more sophisticated than...well, just hoping you are who you say you are before they hand over thousands of dollars of your money. My bad!
As most of you know, Bank of America is firing me as a customer of the end of July, (when they know I have a book due August 1); apparently because I complained too vociferously that they not only failed in their fiduciary duty to me, but because I complained equally vociferously that they have stonewalled me all the way in allowing me to get the video of the thieves and other information I need to protect myself.
My favorite reason they won't give me the video, and the only reason they've given me: "privacy" -- the privacy of...the thief!
Here's my most recent letter to Nereida Claudius of Bank of America, copied to ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com, the chairman, Kenneth D. Lewis, referencing these and other issues. Thought you might enjoy it:
Nereida,
See to it that I am not charged a fee for a cashiers check when I remove my money from Bank of America, per your firing me as a customer as of the end of July.Regarding your ridiculous e-mail suggesting employees and customers of the bank were supposedly in terror of me, I popped into my branch on Saturday, warmly greeted Jose, the manager, a really sweet and decent guy, and a big, strong guy at that, and told him what you suggested in your e-mail. As I was standing there, a skinny, bosomy redhead, in a beautiful dress and little heels and my big lovely hat, he laughed out loud at the idea that he was in any sort of fear, and said of course he wasn't afraid. (And come on, why else would this big, strong guy, who's protected by a security guard with a gun, open the locked door of the bank to talk to me?)
I find such suggestions by you to be "dirty pool," and I suggest you avoid them in the future. Your bank would do well, in light of its spectacular negligence in the way you dispensed my money without employing the most minimal safeguards, to bend over backward to be nice to me. And niceness, Ms. Claudius, doesn't mean politely stonewalling me for information I need to protect myself in the wake of your bank's negligence.
A question: What kind of investigation has your bank done to figure out why I was asked by OMITTED, who processed my IRA application WITHIN THE BRANCH, to give my driver's license number? I cannot call your fraud investigator, as you have prohibited him from talking to me -- yet another example of your bank keeping me from doing what I need to do to protect myself. I've read online on your own site that that is not your policy, to ask a longtime customer, making an IRA deposit IN a branch, for a driver's license number. Futhermore, your bank has the wrong expiration date on file for my driver's license, but, most hilariously, the employee I spoke to on the phone wouldn't give it to me for...security reasons! (Amy note added subsequent to posting this: The thieves also have the wrong expiry date. Could it be because the bank only has the old expiry date for me?)
Would that you took even the slightest precaution when dispensing my money to thieves! Instead, I am blocked from getting information about my own data your bank holds...and when I provided him with mother's maiden name and told him the date I put in my IRA, and read to him from the letter from Wendy Muir about how you at Bank of America COULDN'T MANAGE to get the IRA I deposited in my account on April 2 in by tax day....and then simply sent me a letter saying it would count for year 2008 instead...causing me even more aggravation than I already have, thanks to your bank, to get that cleaned up.
In fact, in every single occasion your employee OMITTED has done some business for me she has made errors -- like reopening my accounts and not linking them to my CD, causing the $20 service charge on my checking with *I* called to remove (you neatly said it was removed on the 24th...yes, because I wasted more of my time sweeping up in the wake of your bank's continuing negligence in serving me as a customer by calling your phone line in the middle of the evening). Additionally, when she said she couldn't put my IRA deposit into my existing accounts because they didn't mature when I was making my deposit, she took it upon herself to open a different kind of account, a money market account, for my IRA. While my experience with your bank's "security" has aged me, I'm sure, I'm still not 90 and needing money out of my account next week. I'm actually 44, and not planning on retiring for decades, thanks.
I need to know what kind of investigation your bank has done to know for sure that the data did not come out of your bank or my branch. I have investigated on my own, and seems the ONLY institution that has all the information the thieves had is your bank. The Franchise Tax Board, my auto insurer, and the DMV only have bits and pieces (no record of bank account number or SS# at the auto insurer, etc.)
I further DEMAND to know the extent of the investigation you've done within that branch and within your bank to see whether my information got out through you. And I demand this in a timely manner. I need to know today or by the end of the week.
Again, I have banked with you for almost 20 years (at some point, you took over my account from Security Pacific), and I have fulfilled all my obligations, and you have failed me most reprehensibly in having the most minimum protections -- while advertising your bank to be the epitome of security. This is a horrible lapse, and bad business.
Again, I will point out...in those seven times your tellers allowed my account to be violated by thieves, had they verified my signature even once, your security guards could've held the thieves for the police, and those fake driver's licenses in my name would likely be in a police evidence locker now (and the police would likely know how the thieves came upon my information -- and perhaps that's information your bank would rather not have come out??).
Chris Hoofnagle of Berkeley Law, one of the experts out there in identity theft, personally e-mailed me the other day to remind me that the thieves could commit crimes and I could be on the hook for them because the thieves are still out there with my driver's licenses.
To that I say: Thanks, Bank of America!
I'm still missing the reason you are not suing them . I know well established lawyers charge shit loads per hour. I refuse to believe there are no recent law school graduates looking to cut their teeth on a case. A buxom red head in heals and a dress (hat optional) hanging at the local college cafe should be able to find a recent grad or a law professor who would love to get his/her hands dirty. Shit had I have passed the bar instead of ENG I'd be on the next flight out (with your permission of course), and get temporary permission to practice in Cali (they have that option in Mass. at least). Having "I whiped BofA's law team, solo" on your resume with court papers to prove it would make you very desirable.
This letter is going to be dismissed. They are tossing you as a customer so they don't care.
vlad at July 30, 2008 2:35 PM
This letter may be dismissed by Bank of America for the moment. Trust me -- there are things I'm doing behind the scenes that I'm not able to mention here...and yes, all legal. I do not break the law -- nor do I need to.
I have a book due -- now probably more than a month behind because of BofA.
I will pursue them whatever way I can when my book is turned in. But, I'm a middle-class newspaper columnist, and if you read the book I linked to before, Zero Day Threat, by two USA Today reporters who are on the ID theft beat, you'll learn how banks run up huge charges to prohibit people like me from bringing suit.
Amy Alkon at July 30, 2008 3:08 PM
Small consolation, I know, but I have a mental picture of Ms. Claudius physically flinching every time Amy's name is mentioned. She's probably, and deservedly, developing a nervous tic.
Two questions: is this book coming out in Canada? and you're 44??? Do you have some sort of skin-care pact with the Devil?
catspajamas at July 30, 2008 4:05 PM
Hah! Thanks - and no, the pact is with La Roche-Posay, makers of Anthelios. Until recently, the FDA had protected us from protecting our skin by keeping us from being able to buy Anthelios in this country. #15 (why bother?) was approved first, and then my friend Claudia told me they were selling #40 at CVS, but not the one I use -- creme pour la visage (cream for the face), which I wear on my face. It's quite expensive (I pay 9.90 eu in France) and the euro/dollar exchange being what it is, (1.60 ish last time I looked), it's not a surprise that it's selling for $24.99 for a small tube. Still, I am not one of those women who thinks you have to spend a lot of money on "beauty" products (all that wrinkle-reducing crap). I use Cetaphil to wash my face, and St. Ives to wash it in the shower. That sets me back maybe $2 a month, total.
But, instead of buying firming/freshening cream or sheep urine extract or whatever it is women use to cling to their youth, I just wear a hat or use an umbrella outdoors, when I am outdoors, and wear Anthelios if it's daylight.
Here it is:
Anthelios XL sunblock - SPF 60 - 3oz - with Mexoryl
Oh and I think they'll sell in Canada. If not, we'll see they do.
Amy Alkon at July 30, 2008 5:33 PM
Amy did you mean
people like me from bringing in a case
?
lujlp at July 30, 2008 6:41 PM
This Nereida wrote to me a few correspondences back and said something along the lines of (I'm too wiped out to go look it up in my big BofA ID theft file), "We consider this matter closed."
Oh, do you? Well, isn't that lovely for you.
Amazing how statements like that, instead of having the desired effect, and making me go away like an obedient little victim, instead serve to gin me up to go after them more. And to expose them more.
All day, when I'm out, I tell people about what I've gone through and suggest they look for themselves on my blog. I don't tell them not to bank at BofA; I tell them to look at what I've gone through and decide for themselves.
Oh, and hilariously, this Nereida Claudius, who suggested that their employees and customers are in terror of me (in person, I'm this tall, skinny, goofy redhead, usually dressed to go to the opera when I go to write at a cafe)...anyway, she also made out in this letter like I'd go into the bank and cause some trouble when I close my account. Somehow behave inappropriately (as if that isn't ALL they've done in terms of their responsibility to me).
Claudius wrote that they would "prefer" that I make an appointment. Oh...would they? I think what they would prefer to do is to make me out to be some nutcase, again, because I'm not just saying, "Okay, so you bent me over seven times and rammed sharp stick up my ass. We can still be friends!"
Not giving a shit what they prefer, I went in Saturday to pick up the card of the girl who did my IRA so I'd have her last name -- and I somehow managed to do so without foaming at the mouth and tearing up the lobby...or whatever they're pretending I'd do...like I would jeopardize everything I've built (any more than they've already done for me) because they're a bunch of negligent fuckwads. Also, to verbally and physically flip out in some way in a bank branch is a highly ineffective and stupid tactic. The people who work at my branch are just hired hands. They don't make the rules. Also, there's a guy there with a gun. You could get shot.
I think this was all Claudius could muster to do "neener, neener, neener." I found it just hilarious. First of all, I have to tell you, I have Nereida Claudius' home phone number and address, and the case number of her traffic violation, which was dismissed in 2004. I'm a reporter. Finding shit out is what I do. Anyway, I think she's a horrible person to work for this bank in the capacity she does, as a sort of enabler for the bank, post bank-negligence, but I have no right to call her at home or do anything but voice my disapproval through letters and order her to get me information.
Meanwhile, she tells me to send her mail at the main bank address in Charlotte -- when she lives within probably 50 miles of me, and probably works in someplace like Brea, CA. I understand. I guess they have a lot of customers who hate them. And I understand something else, too: If you have to hide from your customers, there's a good chance you're doing something not quite right in your business...to say the least.
Amy Alkon at July 30, 2008 6:50 PM
La Roche-Posay: Yay, thank you! Going shopping ...
catspajamas at July 30, 2008 7:11 PM
Thanks, lujlp. Changed it.
And catspajamas, it's worth every cent. Buy that and forget the other expensive face stuff...the stuff that's supposed to make the wrinkles go away. If they actually had something that did, aside from avoiding the sun and cigarettes, it would make the front page of every newspaper.
I use expensive foundation (which I get in sample bottles on eBay, cheap)...Chanel...I get that because it's hard to get foundation light enough to match my very light skin.
Also use Clinique eye cream, but I've gotten that on eBay too -- until recently, when I got a weird message...they're prohibiting it from being sold.
P.S. If you avoid the sun, you need to make sure you get enough vitamin D. I take fish oil capsules and calcium with vitamin D, and D3 caps.
Amy Alkon at July 30, 2008 7:15 PM
Am all over the vitamins. Good call on the D! Started 1400 IUs daily last year when all those cancer/ms studies hit the news - come the long dark winters we're a little short on sun and fish up here.
catspajamas at July 30, 2008 7:43 PM
Amy,
I know you're a regular reader of Consumerist.com. May I ask... no, beg you to employ an Executive Email Carpet Bomb here? Perhaps nothing will come of it, but I would love to see some corporate crow eating before this dreadful fiasco wraps up.
Harriet at August 4, 2008 3:56 PM
Thanks so much, Harriet. Actually, Consumerist has been great -- gave me the e-mail address of the chairman, Kenneth D. Lewis.
A bunch of people have been writing him -- ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com
If you do, please copy me at adviceamy at a o l dot com!
Amy Alkon at August 4, 2008 6:58 PM
Bank of America does not care about people. They will put everyone of us on the streets if the government does not shut them down!
Nicole at September 8, 2008 9:43 PM
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