To Bank of America,

I am a victim of fraud so please treat me as such and not as a criminal who stole $3,500 from you. This mystery shopper's fraudulent scam has been going on for 3 to 4 years and the FBI are investigating it. Unfortunately, as the scam usually originates from outside the country it is very difficult to trace and is known about by the legitimate secret shoppers company. Since the funds are never to rarely recovered Bank of America is holding me responsible for the $3,000 that was money gram wired out of the country. If the funds had never been made available by Bank of America for me to withdraw the money would never have left the country fraudulently. I am not the first and will not be the last victim of this type of fraud. Even with a police report and case number my claim is being denied as a fraud.The Bank of America fraud department has admitted this is a scam and that I was a victim of fraud but say they do not cover it. If Bank of America says they cover fraud they should cover all types and not pick and choose which fraud they deem worthy enough to cover.

Bank of America has already recovered $500 from my now negative $-2,600+ checking account. As a national bank I am sure you have insurance and can cover a $3,000 loss of which you are responsible for releasing the funds to commit the fraud. I am a struggling recent college graduate with student loans, rent, utilities, and credit card bills. Take responsibility for your actions which directly led to fraud being committed by releasing funds before they were verified. Do not hold me responsible for the $3,500 you should never have cleared, released, and deposited into my account making both Bank of America and me (a loyal customer since 2005) vulnerable to this fraudulent scam. Return my account to my meager balance it was before this entire mess occurred. I do not have the money to pay for Bank of America's mistake and need what little money I had before to pay my rent and bills. Bottom line- if the faulty cashiers check had never cleared and funds been released into the recipients (my) account after the 3 business days of pending, the funds would never have been available to withdraw in turn avoiding the fraud entirely.

Bank customers trust their bank to handle and keep their money safe and in return expect the bank to follow all necessary precautions to do so. Cashiers checks are known to be the type of check used to commit these types of fraud, so Bank of America take the necessary precautions to keep the bank and the customers safe from these fraudulent scams. Do not release and clear the funds from a cashiers check to the recipients bank account until the check is thoroughly verified. This simple precaution would stop this type of fraud from occurring altogether. If the funds from a fraudulent check are not cleared and made available for withdrawal before they are validated in the recipients account, no money can be wired overseas and the fraud committed.

Most to all bank customers assume that the 2 to 3 days pending period from when they originally deposit a check into their account, to when it clears and the funds are available, is the precautionary period the bank uses to do its due diligence to make sure the check is in good standing and the funds are legitimately available. After a check clears the customer assumes the check was validated and good otherwise it would have been rejected. Do not place the blame on YOUR customer for continuing to adhere to the belief that the bank has done its job before releasing and clearing funds into their account. A cashiers check should not be cleared and apparently legitimate one day and the next day the bank turn around and reject it after the funds have already been pending for days, cleared, and deposited.

Please do not hold me or any other of the hundreds of people scammed by this every year responsible for a rushed release of funds procedure that leaves both the bank and customer at risk for this type of fraud. All of my actions as the victim were based on the trust that Bank of America has safe guards in place to protect its customers from this type of fraud, which they do not so please adopt some. As a large nationwide bank treat your customers with respect and cover all types of fraud.

Everyone is a potential victim of this type of scam if Banks all over the country do not place safe guards on cashier check deposits when they know they are the most likely used to commit this type of fraud.

Thanks for your support,

Allison