A Bank of America customer was left with an empty account after his unemployment benefits were stolen.
In California, Bank of America has been responsible for issuing government debit cards during the pandemic.
Azuri Moon, 30, began claiming unemployment benefits in March 2020 after the music teacher and part-time performer found himself out of work during the pandemic.
But that October, while trying to buy lunch, Moon’s card was declined.
He went to the ATM to try to get cash but that didn’t work either.
Moon soon learned that the bank account holding his unemployment funds had been wiped out.
“My account has been completely liquidated,” Moon told CNBC.
“That was actually the first time I really needed to rely on her for rent that month.”
Moon contacted his Bank of America branch in California and discovered that in the days before his card was declined, there had been two unauthorized ATM withdrawals.
About $1,800 in total was stolen, he told CNBC.
Moon then filed a claim with Bank of America, which he said took 11 hours.
He was told it would take 30 days or more for him to get his money back.
Moon then became temporarily homeless because he did not have money to cover his rent that month.
About a month after he reported the missing money, Moon said a bank representative told him he would not receive financial credit and was responsible for the stolen funds.
The actor encouraged him to file a police report.
Only then, after joining a class action lawsuit against Bank of America, did Moon receive credit for the stolen funds.
That suit alleged that Bank of America “failed to take reasonable steps to protect the interests of plaintiffs and class members from fraud,” according to CNBC.
The lawsuit was initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
It also claimed that Bank of America cards were “easily vulnerable to being cloned” because they did not have chip technology to prevent fraud.
In response, Bank of America said it goes far beyond what the law requires, CNBC reported.
The bank had about 255,000 fraud claims filed between October 2020 and March 2021 — but agreed to pay only half, according to court documents.
Bank of America also told CNBC that less than 2% of cardholders had benefits stolen during the pandemic.
Overall, as of January 2021, the Department of Labor reported $40 million in incorrect payments — most attributed to identity theft.
Meanwhile, effective February 15, 2024, Advantage Cards will no longer be issued in California by Bank of America.
Instead, the country is switching to Money Network prepaid debit cards.