topic Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert in Credit Cards

BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:10:49 GMT

Just wanted to share the following.

Yesterday I got a phone call and email from bofa about suspicous activity on my account, stating that they placing a hold on my account until I verified some recent purchases.

I knew that there was no fraudulent activity since I check my balances daily, sometimes twice. Funny thing is -including pending charges, the balance is only about $35.

I recently pc'ed over from a non rewards card, so in BofA's defense my spending habits have changed a bit (I've been using it for misc. non-bonus spending), but still $35 dollars seems inconsequential enough that it shouldn't trigger a hold. Also, one would think that bofa would anticipate that my spending on the card would increase, since the point of a rewards card is to push through spending to accrue points.

Long story short I called the number they emailed me and cleared everything up, so no real problem just a minor irritation. Personally, I think its good practice that BofA is at least paying attention/looking for fraud, just wish they would have been more objective in my particular case. Also noticed they softed me on TU the same day, but util is about 2% with no recent accounts, so I highly doubt any sort of aa.

So,my question would be- has anyone else had experience with BofA getting a bit overzealous with their fraud monitoring, or is this more of an isolated incident.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

creditnocash — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:15:29 GMT

it has happened to me with my debit card (dont have any credit products with them)

i live on the border of mass/ct.

i drove over the line and withdrew well tried to 1000 out of the atm. i was denied.

then tried again for 450 and gave it to me.

then the same thing my account was put on fraud alert.

i just called in verified my recent use and they took the hold off.

its nice and an inconvenience all at the same time.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:28:49 GMT

@creditnocash wrote:
it has happened to me with my debit card (dont have any credit products with them)

i live on the border of mass/ct.
i drove over the line and withdrew well tried to 1000 out of the atm. i was denied.
then tried again for 450 and gave it to me.

then the same thing my account was put on fraud alert.
i just called in verified my recent use and they took the hold off.

its nice and an inconvenience all at the same time.

Interesting. I live in MA (on the MA/RI border) but commute to RI pretty regularly for grad classes. Maybe buying lunch a couple of times in RI had something to do with it?

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

jsickz32 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:29:37 GMT

they did the same thing when i used my BofA amex at the strip club. they called me next morning to ask if those charges were correct and thats it. they also SP TU. they also sent me a new card for my bofa plat plus cuz the last place i had used my card at (western union online) got hacked and they did it just in case my card number was stolen from wester union system. awesome!

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

creditnocash — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:31:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@creditnocash wrote:
it has happened to me with my debit card (dont have any credit products with them)

i live on the border of mass/ct.
i drove over the line and withdrew well tried to 1000 out of the atm. i was denied.
then tried again for 450 and gave it to me.

then the same thing my account was put on fraud alert.
i just called in verified my recent use and they took the hold off.

its nice and an inconvenience all at the same time.
Interesting. I live in MA (on the MA/RI border) but commute to RI pretty regularly for grad classes. Maybe buying lunch a couple of times in RI had something to do with it?

its possible. i was just in smithfield all week for work. and used only my amex. but since its a newer card. not sure. have not had any problems.

but in my case i think its the fact it was for 1k.

the purchases this week in total were less then 250

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:37:28 GMT

@creditnocash wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@creditnocash wrote:
it has happened to me with my debit card (dont have any credit products with them)

i live on the border of mass/ct.
i drove over the line and withdrew well tried to 1000 out of the atm. i was denied.
then tried again for 450 and gave it to me.

then the same thing my account was put on fraud alert.
i just called in verified my recent use and they took the hold off.

its nice and an inconvenience all at the same time.
Interesting. I live in MA (on the MA/RI border) but commute to RI pretty regularly for grad classes. Maybe buying lunch a couple of times in RI had something to do with it?
its possible. i was just in smithfield all week for work. and used only my amex. but since its a newer card. not sure. have not had any problems.
but in my case i think its the fact it was for 1k.
the purchases this week in total were less then 250

Hmm....Small world.

Its pretty unlikely that amex would put a fraud alert on an account. I have traveled domestically without notifying them and still been able to spend without issue

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

creditnocash — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:43:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Hmm....Small world.
Its pretty unlikely that amex would put a fraud alert on an account. I have traveled domestically without notifying them and still been able to spend without issue

guessing you go to bryant? lol

and i think it all depends on company policies.

ive been to the west coast and never got declined myself but ive heard stories about people going to fl for a couple weeks and their account put on hold because of out of state activity.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

bobebob — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:12:05 GMT

The amounts of the charges aren't what concerns the CCC's about fraud, at least right away.

Once a card is skimmed, the clone cards that are made are usually tested out for very small purchases a customer is unlikely to notice to make sure they work before they are sold.

What flags the purchases first is the distance from your home the purchases occur.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

Revelate — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 03:31:24 GMT

The fraud detection is all automated. It's happened a few times with my card but I don't care in the slightest: they caught it the one time my CC number was hacked out of an online retailer's database.

Far as I am concerned the aggravation and annoyance of having a legit charge trigger a fraud alert is completely obviated by the fact their system does work.

Also my baby Zync has already triggered a fraud alert too, so it's not just BOFA anyway.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

creditnocash — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 04:03:12 GMT

hmm just put a 600 dollar restaurant bill on my cc. in ct (literally 3 minutes over the border)

ill let you know how this plays out.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

creditnocash — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:13:15 GMT

@creditnocash wrote:
hmm just put a 600 dollar restaurant bill on my cc. in ct (literally 3 minutes over the border)

ill let you know how this plays out.

well jee cant login to my credit account for citizens bank.

and when i go to cc from regualr banking the site freezes up.

cc site says they cannot find my account.

and to call the number listed.

awesome. oh well.

thats what happens when you put a 600 dollar bill and 600 dollar iphone 5 all in one month.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:58:33 GMT

BofA always hits me with the most rediculous fraud alerts.

I went to Russia for two weeks, nothing.

Got back and was back for a week, nothing.

Went to Starbucks (which I've always done often) after being back for a week and boom FRAUD ALERT.

Never any sort of fraud alert with Amex or Chase.

Re: BofA Weirdness-Fraud Alert

TheConductor — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:05:00 GMT

I think a lot of the false positives in their system come from merchants whose systems maybe aren't doing authorizations "the right way". Over the years I've had about two dozen of these fraud alerts from BoA, and that's been enough for me to figure out a few patterns.

For example, the gas station right by my work which looks like it hasn't upgraded its pumps since 2000 but people use it anyway because it's 4 congested miles to the next nearest gas station....I've had 3 separate alerts come right after paying at the pump there.

I've also noticed that their algorithm apparently has some geographical biases. e.g. Once I notified them I would be traveling in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, spent a few months in Sweden with no problems, went to Finland with no problem, but as soon as I set foot in Latvia, boom! Fraud lock!

Anyway, it's all perfectly normal and it does usually seem to be small purchases that trigger it. I've gotten used to it and kind of regard it as a nice reminder that even if they are a huge corporate megabank, at least they're watching my six a bit.

I will say that in the past few years, the efficiency and courtesy of the people on the fraud review line has really improved. In the past I used to be annoyed by the fraud locks because it would likely mean 15m of waiting to speak with a terse and suspicious-sounding rep. Now, it's typically two minutes and I'm done, and the rep is usually pleasant and cheerful.