BofA and claim denials
Hi guys, I’m in thick water here. Let me tell you my sob story. Grab a coffee or something, I don’t know.
My parents had booked two airplane tickets through an airline, except they booked it in person, and this was in our home country so it was 100% real. Then came the time of two weeks before D-day, and all of a sudden, they couldn’t travel anymore. If we cancel the ticket it’s a $1000 fee. I attempted to contact what I thought was the airline number. Here is where the pressure was, my dad is residing in the country and he would essentially pay a f*** tun of money to move the ticket. He can not afford that. And my mother would have to pay $1200 USD extra, which was also not good. What made me motivated to do this was that they promised my dad would get his full money and I would pay the same amount he paid, but pay it here in USD.
I search up the number of the “airline” bc we are in the USA, they only have one in NYC. I called the number and it would put on the phone for hours from spot number 6 to number 1 and it would bring me back to number 6 again. That’s until I found another number.
1. I started the call at 11:30 Am and ended at 5 PM
2. The man who claimed to be “Booking desk” Sent me an email stating that the new tickets just needed to be paid, and that for the old tickets, I would get a 24 hr wait for an email. Of course, my mind rang, and I immediately went to check if my tickets were actually cancelled; they were not. But then. I went online and it said the cancellation can actually take up to 7 days. So I was like “meh”
3. The email included a link. (Yes, I clicked it, and not only that, I also put three different credit cards on there because the payment was not going through)
4. The name inside the payment booth said a company name that was known for actually booking tickets, which made me believe this a little more.
Just when you think the Universe was perhaps sending me signs, I was in fact not receiving them. (. They then proceeded to give me different phone numbers and emails to attempt to send the money to and each time, the system would decline (God was speaking to me, I was listening to music). Anyways, after multiple banks calls, I gave them the payment of $1490 out of $3,151.
Because the bank kept declining, they requested a wire transfer. Another decline. I call, they ask, I go “OH SHIT”. I ask the scammer whats the name of your agency? He stutters??? “In Colorado,” he says, “WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR AGENCY?” - silence. Finally, he says SSG Voyage. I look it up. INDIA!!!!. I go “What's your AITA number?” he digs on up, I look at the registry, and it's not there. shit shit shit shit SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!
I realized I got scammed. I told the wire transfer lady to cancel that shit and to transfer me to the fraud department. For the next hour and a half I'm being transferred inside my bank and i made a claim to hopefully recover the $1490. I spent my entire summer earning minimum wage just to see them go.
Now here’s the part that’s pissing me off. I am telling the bank to make a claim, in 2 days denied. I call again I tell them to reopen it, guy on the phone says you’ll get an email and you’ll see it in the app. But I don’t see this one and I didn’t see the one before. They are not giving me a chance to show proof that I literally received an email saying I was paying for the tickets and they are taking this as a “legit” payment.
From what I understand it was “authorized” but isn’t this under false pretenses? Was I not fooled? And despite all the phone numbers, I provided in the initial claim call they completely blame it on me. I also get that bc this is “Zelle” it’s harder.
Maybe this amount isn’t huge for a lot of ppl but to me it’s a big deal. I currently don’t work and I can’t work bc I’m in a stressful time at grad school. At this point, I feel like they have been protecting the scammers.
I also would like to mention that I’ve read a couple of other posts on here and this apparently isn’t the first time BofA does this with their claims. There is no hope for me, is there? :/