Bank of America's may be risking its reputation in a case involving a lawsuit from a Miami businessman who lost $90,000 due to Internet-related fraud and winning the case may mean a public relations risk for the bank, USBanker reported.
Joe Lopez found that more than $90,000 from his account had been wired to Parex Bank in Riga, Latvia, without his authorization. But Bank of America responded by saying that the wire transfer was made without compromising the security of its system and it isn't liable. The Secret Service, which investigated the case, said that Coreflood-a keystroke-logging software-was used to steal a password and account number in an online session, USBanker said.
USBanker reported that while BofA may win the case as the bank my be "technically" correct in denying wrongdoing, "by most customers' reasoning banks are responsible for fraudulent activity."
USBanker reported that the plaintiff is also charging that BofA failed to act promptly, because even as Lopez detected the transfer "minutes" after it occurred, calls to BofA to alert it about the transaction were met with a reply that the bank couldn't do anything until business hours resumed.
