A 77-year-old Bank of America client has accused the bank of failing to stop scammers from draining her $690,000 in life savings, which started when she asked to add her son to her Merrill Lynch account, according to an elder financial abuse lawsuit recently filed against the bank and an unidentified branch employee.
Los Angeles-area resident Annie Ma, who was 74 at the time, contends she lost her life savings to a "Chinese authorities scam" in 2021 after going to a branch in West Covina, California, to make the request about her Merrill account, according to the suit, filed last month in California Superior Court and moved to a U.S. District Court this week.
Bank of America "openly shirked their responsibilities to their elderly customers, including the clearly elderly plaintiff," and assisted a branch employee and others in conducting the scam by ignoring "multiple red flags" raised by uncharacteristic, large transfers from Ma's account, the suit contends.
At least one BofA employee, branch customer service representative "Jane Doe," was involved in the scam, in which two wire transfers of the client's retirement savings were transferred to scammers, she alleges.
The bank ignored its own policies and procedures to protect Ma from financial elder abuse, instead repeatedly wiring her money to scammers and turning "a blind eye and callous heart to the outrageous pillaging of (her) financial security," according to the complaint, which cites 10 other unidentified "Doe" defendants.
The suit accuses BofA of financial elder abuse and unlawful, unfair and deceptive business practices, and seeks general, special, punitive and triple damages, among other relief.
"We disagree with the allegations," BofA spokesman Bill Halldin told ThinkAdvisor on Thursday.
What Happened
When Ma visited the bank to request her son's name be added to her Merrill Lynch account, a customer service representative told her the branch didn't have a Merrill office and asked her to wait for a moment, the complaint says.
Ma "then watched the bank employee turn around, walk to a desk and then bent over the desk and began writing on a piece of paper. The bank employee returned and gave (Ma) the paper with a handwritten phone number on it. The employee told (Ma) to call the number because they would be able to help her," the complaint states.
When Ma called the number around Jan, 15, 2021, "a man answered the phone, who initially spoke English but then switched to Mandarin, and the person stated they are [with] the 'Safety Department' of Bank of America," the complaint says.
The man asked for Ma's name and told her she owed $3,600 on a credit card applied for in Shanghai; she responded that BofA should investigate because she lived in Los Angeles and didn't know anyone in Shanghai, according to the suit.
The man told her to speak with the Shanghai police and connected her to what she was told was the "Shanghai police office," it says.
