Florida Man 'Watched $27,000 Go Missing' From His Bank of America Account & His Bank Denied His Claim at First

A Florida man noticed that $27,000 was missing from his Bank of America account. He called his bank to file a claim and they denied his claim because they claimed there wasn't fraud after detecting "a device that was known to use bill pay."

Bank of America sign; credit: Mike Mozart CC BY 2.0 DEED

Bank of America Customer Loses $27K in Online Banking Bill Pay

In 2022, a chain of events led Luca Bencini to discover that $27,000 was missing from the bank account he had with Bank of America.

An email he received from Bank of America asked, "Did you open up a bill-pay to an unknown American Express card?"

This email prompted him to look into his finances with Bank of America.

That's when he logged in to discover a whole lot of cash was in fact missing.

He said:

“I went to my account, I saw that $27,000 was drawn to that American Express card. At that point, I immediately called the Bank of America for fraud, and that's where the whole thing started." -Luca Bencini, Bank of America customer

Bank of America Denies Fraud Claim Before the News Got Involved

He called his bank to file a fraud claim and they denied him a refund because they claimed his bill pay was accessed by a device that was "known to use bill pay" and deemed him liable for the money leaving his account.

Bencini then decided to contact the Broward County Sheriff's Office and WTJV 6 News. He was hoping that detectives could tell him if his bank account with Bank of America had been hacked.

Bencini said:

“But it wasn't my laptop nor my PC. Both of them were shut down while I was traveling, and nobody came into the house." -Luca Bencini, Bank of America customer

WTJV 6 News contacted Bank of America to ask about the situation, and then Bank of America executives decided to call Bencini and inform him they had a change of heart on the matter. They informed him that "they had decided to return the money or refund the money."

Did Bank of America only refund the money because they would receive negative publicity if they didn't choose to do the right thing?

Hindsight is 20-20

Luce Bencini noticed that he received a lot of spam emails flooding his inbox around the time that he received an email from Bank of America, which is a commonly used tactic called "email bombing."

Always pay attention to the fraud emails you receive from your bank, and identify the emails that are a form of phishing.

Always contact your bank at the trusted phone number and website, and never by the phone number or URL provided in the email.

Miscellaneous PHISHING SCAMS From Mrs Susan Uda, Dr. John Cho Chak, Betty Rawlings, REV JOHN OBI

Laptop Fail by ph0rk

Subject line: Dear Customer
Received From: paolapgraps@alice.it

Dear Customer
Good day, Please we need your current home address and telephone number to enable us start sending your US$8.5,000.00 to you as we were instructed by western union to be sending you $5000.00 per day until the whole amount is located to you, We need your full name.............Home Address............Telephone number................ forward them to this email address( westernunionrecondfile@yahoo.fr) call Director Rev Dr Frank Richard at +229-98 71 04 51. Note you can pay the for the Activation fee of your Total Funds before you can be able to pick up this first payment of $5000 dollar which has been sent to you already, Track this information Bellow.

Here is your First payment,

https://wumt.westernunion.com/asp/orderStatus.asp?country=global

MTCN#: 6850395616
Sent by: Yolanda Dalag
Country: Benin
Amount sent: $5000
Test Question: In God?
Answer: We Trust

Thanks
Mrs Susan Uda

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Dr. John Cho Chak Phishing Scam Email

Received from: {Dr. John CHAN Cho Chak}  john2@online.nl

Subject line: [No Subject]

Dear Friend,

I am Dr. John CHAN Cho Chak, A member of Director of Operations of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd, Sai Wan Ho Branch, Hong Kong; I have an obscured business suggestion. Should you be further interested, Contact me through this email for further confidential correspondence: dr.johnchanchochak6@yahoo.com.hk

Warm Regards
Dr. John CHAN Cho Chak.

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Received from: m.c.levering@online.nl

Subject line: [No Subject]

I am Mrs Betty Rawlings, A United States Citizen i have good news for you contact me via my email:  rawlingsbetty477@yahoo.com.hk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi.
I write this and I believe that you answer me. I hope you will be an interesting conversationalist and a good friend and maybe more. Many Humans began their relationship through correspondence. And so I decided to try it.
I am an educated, active, ambitious ... I appreciate in people a sense of proportion and the ability to laugh. :) But most of all I appreciate the confidence and the willingness of men to a new relationship. You are ready to start a new relationship? What do you think about this? Write to me. My email onqronn877@yandex.ru I look forward to a response.

Best wishes,
Juliya
Email: onqronn877@yandex.ru

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Received from: revjojohn@aol.com

Subject line: atm Card Payments Unit Notification

GOOD DAY,
This is to officially inform you that (ATM Card number:
4225-8422-0661-2760) has been accredited in your favor. Your Personal
Identification Number is 8228. The ATM Card Value is US$10,000,000.00. You
are advice to contact me with the following information: Name, Address,
Phone, Age, Sex, and Occupation. You can also call out hot line
+234-8061216560, to confirm.
Thank you,
Rev. John Obi
ATM Logistics Unit,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Prospective Partner,

Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met before but l do solely want to present you with a business proposition worth millions of dollars. 
My Name is Ting Sun I work with the Hang Seng Bank. There is the sum of US$28,500,000.00 in my bank"Hang Seng Bank",Hong kong. I wish to make a transfer of the US$28,500,000.00 .I do solicit for your assistance in effecting this transaction. I intend to give you 40% of the total funds as compensation for your assistance. Should you be interested please send me an email on my private email.

Regards,
Ting Sun