Do you have an account with Bank of America (BofA)? Have you ever received text messages from Bank of America about your EDD prepaid card and instruct you to click an attatched link to login? Beware: DON’T click on anything — you could end up exposing your credentials!
Scammers will pose as Bank of America and send text messages and/or emails with phishing links, using various excuses to do so.
Scammers will try and trick you into visiting the link in order to reactivate your Bank of America EDD (Employment Development Department) prepaid debit card:
Edd Debit Card Program Rife With Fraud, Reports Of Unemployed Californians Not Getting Their Money
The scammers’ goal is to steal your personal information. After prompting you to confirm the security status of the account, they will lead you to a fake login page. The credentials you submit here will end up in the scammers’ hands, which they can use to enter your account and take all your money. Don’t let them!
In other instances, scammers use free offers and gifts as a lure. Promising you some prize, scammers will prompt you to click on the link that leads to phishing websites (most of the time they are fake online survey pages).
Scammers also target those who sell things online. They will impersonate potential buyers and send an email to the seller, instructing them to send the goods, falsely claiming that they have already paid with Zelle. (Of course, they’ve never paid a cent, and your goods will vanish with no trace!)
Edd Fiasco Takes A Surprising Turn: Bank Of America Wants Out
After you’ve pinned the Trend Micro Check extension, it will block dangerous sites automatically! (Available on Safari, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge).
You can also download the Trend Micro Check mobile app for 24/7 automatic scam and spam detection and filtering. (Available for Android and iOS).
As ever, if you’ve found this article an interesting and/or helpful read, please doSHAREwith friends and family to help keep the online community secure and protected.Debit cards were touted as a better alternative than checks for unemployed Californians. But a FOX 11 investigation reveals it's a program rife with fraud, complaints and worst of all, leaving people without their money.
Mobile Banking App
He says he soon learned someone had duplicated his Employment Development Department (EDD) debit card and stole his benefits payment. But what surprised him even more was Bank of America's response.
I got to the bank and they're, ‘Yeah, this happens all the time, ’ he said. I'm like, ‘Wow, if this happens all the time they should change it, make it better.’
He's far from alone. In fact, a FOX 11 investigation found the EDD debit card program is rife with scammers, complaints and problems.
Fyi: Your Federal 'check' Might Arrive As A Debit Card
This past July, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined Bank of America $225 million over the bank's botched disbursement of unemployment benefits in multiple states during the height of the pandemic.
But our investigation has found innocent people are still being left in the lurch. Enter the search terms BofA and EDD in the CFPB website and you'll see complaints from about a dozen states.
In recent weeks, beneficiaries have complained that their funds have been frozen for a year or that they had thousands transferred out of their account. Bank of America says it froze accounts due to widespread fraud, but in a letter to California lawmakers, the finance giant admitted at one point as many as 488, 000 accounts in California were frozen.
Lawmakers Call On Bank Of America To Fix Frozen Edd Debit Cards
Among them were legitimate beneficiaries who tell FOX 11 they were left without their money at a time when businesses were shuttered and they needed their money the most.
In a statement to FOX11 Bank of America said, As California’s unemployment program faced tens of billions of dollars in fraud, Bank of America’s goal always was to ensure legitimate recipients could access their benefits. Bank of America partnered with the state to identify and fight fraud throughout the pandemic, identifying hundreds of thousands of suspicious cards and assisting the state in protecting billions of dollars.
We need more clarity about what banks can and cannot do in terms of freezing your money if there's a problem, says Lauren Saunders, the associate director of the National Consumer Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Your Bank Of America Prepaid Debit Card Has Been Temporarily Suspended
The advocacy group takes on big banks as part of its mission to protect consumers. She says the state should have given beneficiaries should have a choice on how they get their payments.
The state of California rolled out the program back in 2010, partnering with Bank of America. The EDD argued many beneficiaries didn't have bank accounts and so the EDD debit card was better than sending checks.
Bank of America would issue the cards at no cost to the state and in exchange, California would get a share of the profits. Most of the fees come from merchants, who pay up anytime a customer uses the card, but Bank of America would also collect interest on the funds in people's accounts.
Bofa Users Face 'edd Card Blocked, Account Closed' Issues
We wanted to know how much the agreement has brought in for the state. The EDD's own documents show that it has collected almost $200 million from the agreement. The amounts were modest in the first year, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. But then, during the pandemic, those numbers jumped to six million in just one month. In fact, 2020 was a profitable year for the state, raking in $47 million from the cards.
No one from the EDD agreed to go on camera, and when we asked for specifics on how the profit share is calculated, the EDD press office said they needed to check with their attorneys, then didn't get back to us.
We don't know how much came from consumer fees, but last year Bank of America told California lawmakers that it had brought in $687 million, but had spent $927 million. The Bank added it had lost $240 million between January of 2011 and the same month in 2021 in part due to criminals and fraud.
Bank Of America Prepaid
The bank now wants out of the EDD card business, but California said, no. The state exercised an option in the contract to keep the program going.
As for Stanczack, he got his money refunded, but wishes he'd been given a choice on how to get his money. He now has a new card and just interviewed for a job in his field of commercial plumbing, which he hopes will mean he won't have to worry about EDD scammers stealing his money again.
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