When you get a call from 844-585-0488, you’re getting a call from Bank of America.
They are calling because they believe there is an issue with a credit card or bank account that needs your attention, either a fraud alert or a collection call about a past due balance.
The issue is that thousands of consumers report that these calls come out of the blue and without any clear way to determine if the caller is actually Bank of America or an imposter. The questions below will help you determine what’s going on and how to deal with it.
Who Is Bank of America?
Bank of America Corporation is one of the largest banks in the United States. Here’s what you need to know about them:
Company type: First-party creditor (originates and services their own loans, credit cards, and bank accounts)
Industry verticals: Credit cards, retail banking, mortgages, auto loans, and small business lending
Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina
Company size: Publicly traded, approximately 213,000 employees, 3,700 financial centers across 39 states, and roughly 70 million consumer and small business clients
Major subsidiaries: Merrill Lynch, BofA Securities, Bank of America Private Bank
BBB rating: A+ (accredited since 1949), though only 7.7% of 7,477 complaints filed in the past three years were resolved to the consumer’s satisfaction
A History of Unwanted Robocalls That Predates Your Call
If you feel like these calls are predatory or harassing, you’re not alone.
In 2014, Bank of America agreed to a $32 million class action settlement for using automatic dialing systems and prerecorded voices to call the cell phones of roughly 7 million consumers without their prior consent. Individual lawsuits have alleged calling patterns of up to 300 calls per consumer, including calls to consumers who did not owe the debt in question. You’re not imagining things.
Why Is Bank of America Calling Me?
Is This a Debt Collection Call or a Fraud Alert?
The phone number 844-585-0488 has been identified as Bank of America’s fraud department, which means calls from this number may be the result of suspected fraudulent activity on your account.
However, consumers have also reported receiving calls from this number about debts, old accounts, and accounts they do not recognize. If you do not have a Bank of America account at all, you’re in good company. Multiple consumers have reported receiving calls from this number despite never having been a Bank of America customer.
Is Someone Using Bank of America’s Phone Number to Scam You?
This is the crux of why 844-585-0488 is such a dangerous phone number. The number is simultaneously a legitimate Bank of America phone number used for fraud alerts and a number widely used by scammers posing as the bank. RoboKiller identifies the number as a legitimate bank line, while Nomorobo identifies it as a phishing robocall.
As one consumer put it: “I can’t verify it, but it seems like a scam number pretending to be Bank of America phone line. Somehow they knew my last four digits of credit card. Don’t call this number to check for fraud. They ask you to say or put in your FULL account number or social security number.”
When even Bank of America’s own customer service representatives have given consumers conflicting answers about whether the number is legitimate or not, how are consumers supposed to tell the difference between a legitimate fraud alert and a phishing attempt aimed at stealing their identity?
What Do They Want When They Call?
Are They Trying to Get You to Give Them Sensitive Information?
According to the complaint data, the answer is yes. Calls from this number consistently involve requests for sensitive personal information before the caller has proven their identity.
One consumer reported that the caller requested their driver’s license number and online banking ID, before adding: “My cousin works in BoA for 3 years and he told me BoA representatives never ask for sensitive information like online ID or Driver Licence number. It was totally scam!”
People have a tendency to defer to authority, particularly when the authority in question appears to be a major bank calling about a specific account. That’s exactly what these calls play on. Whether the caller is a legitimate Bank of America representative or an imposter, the tendency to do what someone who sounds official tells you to do can override your better judgment.
Can You Trust What They Promise You Over the Phone?
You should never trust a verbal promise from someone calling you out of the blue. Any agreement, commitment, or promise made over the phone should be viewed as nonbinding until you have something in writing. Promises made by phone are impossible to enforce, frequently broken, and often directly contradicted by the fine print that comes later.
If someone calls you from this number and offers to settle a balance or waive a fee, insist on getting it in writing before you do anything. If they refuse, you know exactly what you’re dealing with.
What If You Just Keep Answering?
Will Answering These Calls Help You or Hurt You?
As one consumer perfectly put it: “If the bank is calling me, they should transfer my account information to the CSR when they transfer the call to him. If this is a valid call, they are basically conditioning their customers to be victims of fraud.”
Every time you answer a call you cannot verify, you are teaching yourself to respond to unverified requests for personal data. Answering these calls also tells an auto-dialer that the phone number is live, which can result in an increase in call volume.
As one RoboKiller user put it about this number: “Do not answer this call he will call you relentlessly.” The more you engage, the more they will call.
Does Their History Suggest They Will Treat You Fairly?
According to Bank of America’s profile at the Better Business Bureau, the company has received 7,477 complaints in just the past three years, with a consumer satisfaction rating of just 7.7%. That means that fewer than one in 10 consumers who filed complaints against Bank of America report having their issue resolved to their satisfaction.
Poor customer service and complaint resolution rates do not deter giant corporations like Bank of America because their business model is not built on consumer satisfaction. Their revenue comes from account fees, interest charges, and debt collection, not from making consumers happy after the fact.
Can You Ignore These Calls Legally?
Can You Block Their Phone Number?
Yes, you can. Blocking a phone number is not impolite and it is not ignoring the problem. It is exercising a legal right. Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), you have the right to revoke consent for robocalls at any time. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), if a third-party debt collector is involved, you can send a written cease-and-desist letter instructing them to stop calling you.
Bank of America is familiar with both of those concepts. In addition to agreeing to the $32 million TCPA settlement referenced above, individual consumers have successfully sued Bank of America under the FDCPA for harassment, abuse, and deceptive practices. When it comes to unwanted robocalls, the courts take consumer rights seriously, even when the caller is a giant bank.
What Will Happen to My Account If I Stop Answering?
Blocking their calls will not make a legitimate debt go away, but it will not make it worse, either. If Bank of America has already placed a negative item on your credit report as a result of the alleged debt, blocking their calls will not change that status. The question is whether there’s a better way to handle it.
Is There a Better Way to Handle This?
Why Should You Play Their Game?
When you answer a call from Bank of America and try to negotiate or dispute it, you are playing in their world with their representatives and their rules. Everything you say can be noted, recorded, and used against you later. Every reaction you give them is leverage for the person on the other end of the line.
Hiring a professional credit repair company is not just about hiring expertise. It is about removing the emotional manipulation from the equation.
A professional advocate handles the process with documentation, procedure, and distance. They are not intimidated when a customer service representative threatens them with lawsuits or legal action. They are not rushed into a decision because someone is creating a false sense of urgency on the phone. They respond with dispute letters, not emotion.
What Can a Credit Report Dispute Accomplish?
If Bank of America has placed a collection account, charge-off, or other negative item on your credit report, that item is only as good as the documentation backing it up. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have the legal right to dispute any item on your credit report that you believe is inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable.
Once you dispute the item, the burden shifts to the entity that placed it on your report (in this case, Bank of America) to prove that the item is valid within 30 days. If they cannot or do not respond within that timeframe, the item must be removed from your report.
That process happens entirely in writing, entirely through the credit reporting agencies, and entirely without requiring you to interact with Bank of America’s customer service department directly. It shifts the balance of power from a phone call where they dictate the terms to a written dispute process where federal law is on your side.
What to Do Next
What Should You Do Right Now?
Stop answering calls from 844-585-0488. Block the phone number. Pull a copy of your credit report and see if there are any items from Bank of America. Then ask yourself: do you want to keep going through this on your own or do you want someone in your corner who understands how to work the system the way it was meant to be worked?
At FightCollections.com, we specialize in disputing inaccurate, incomplete, and unverifiable items from consumer credit reports. We handle the documentation, the dispute process, and the follow-up so you do not have to engage with the calls or the customer service.
If Bank of America has placed something on your credit report that should not be there, contact us today for a free consultation.
