Konstantinos Alexopoulos Suing BofA For Giving Away His Account To Man With Same Name

One man is suing Bank of America after the company allegedly handed over his account to another customer with the same name.

Konstantinos Alexopoulos opened up an account at Barnett Bank -- which was ultimately acquired by BofA -- in 1992 when he came to the United States for college, the Tampa Tribune reports. He returned to Greece in 1997 and continued making deposits to the account totaling $59,000 in 2003, but when he checked his balance in 2005, it had dwindled to $1,400.

Alexopoulos alleges that's because the bank mixed up his account with that of another man of the same name, who subsequently withdrew the money, according to the Tribune.

If Alexopoulos' claims hold up in court, it would be far from the first BofA mix-up. The bank also gave the same 10-digit account number to two customers in Riverside, California, according to a July report by the Los Angeles Times. One of the customers -- an 88-year-old World War II veteran -- ended up losing out on $30,000 worth of social security payments as a result. After an investigation by the San Bernardino County district attorney's office, he ultimately got the money back.

In September it was reported that a Hawaiian woman sued BofA after she received computer-generated calls as often as every 15 minutes from the bank over a missed mortgage payment, while she was grieving for her recently deceased husband.

BofA has also had some notable blunders issuing foreclosures. The bank threatened to foreclose on a Utah couple's home earlier this month, after they had already sold it. The bank also tried to foreclose on a home last month that was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008. In addition, the bank asked a Massachusetts man in August to pay a $0.00 balance to stave off foreclosure.

The account and foreclosure mixups likely aren't the worst public relations disaster for BofA in recent months. The bank backtracked from a plan to start charging customers $5 to use their debit cards after consumers and lawmakers blasted the proposal.

Still, BofA isn't the only big bank to make a big mistake. JPMorgan Chase had a man jailed for four days last summer for trying to deposit a check the bank itself had issued him.

Comments

[rob18500]

08:27 PM on 11/19/2011

Rather than stop doing business with BofA, I wish more folks would take my approach. I took almost all of my money out but continue with a $1 direct deposit per pay period. Since I have direct deposit, they don't charge me. And they get the joy of administering my $20 account all day long. Someone is losing money on me, such a shame. Oh, and I bought a short sale that they ended up losing $100k on as well....I felt good that day.

[TheTRUTHbyGod]

09:00 PM on 11/18/2011

Bank of America is the Jeffrey Dahmer of banks.

It should be closed and its execs tried for mayhem and sentenced to be thrown out of helicopters over the nearest ocean.

[Uncommoner]

08:16 PM on 11/18/2011

Sounds familiar. I wrote a check to someone for $8,000, which they tried to pay out for $80,000 and then refused to waive the bad check charge on the recipient. He switched to my bank.

What a joke.

[mstax]

11:18 AM on 11/18/2011

Just a reminder, BofA is the "Bank Of America" in name only - the current user of that name is actually Nations Bank, which bought BofA some years ago and just slapped the better name on to their operations.

[MikeB tx]

05:46 PM on 11/18/2011

Wow, I forgot about that1998 event. (Not endorsing this, but BING search provided it - http://finance.mapsofworld.com/merger-acquisition/bank/bank-americas.html)

Reading that info gives some perspective on too-big-to-fail... Ouch!!! (Also see my reply below, ouch, ouch, ouch, and yikes!)

[Anne Agard]

10:16 AM on 11/18/2011

It's ridiculous that banks and other institutions make this kind of mistake. It's perfectly avoidable. It seems to happen most often to people with "foreign" names--Konstantinos Alexopoulos may seem like a unique name to some American bank clerk, but it's probably not unusual if you are Greek.

I once spent a lot of time helping a student with an Asian name who was owed a lot of money by an insurance company because her parked car was demolished by a big truck. The check never came, and never came, and it eventually turned out, after I pretended to be a lawyer, that the check had been accidentally issued to someone else with a similar (not even the same) name. Then, even though they admitted the mistake, they still balked at issuing another check!

We all give them more ways to identify us than just a same. They all have computer technology. The only excuse is callous indifference.

[MikeB tx]

05:32 PM on 11/18/2011

Avoidable? MAYBE...

I've worked in computers in many capacities for many years, and volunteered for non-profit groups. One non-profit kept a computerized database of donors to invite them to their groups' performances (and ask for more donations). I was moving the list to modern database program, and encountered many cases of names with different job titles, companies, and personal and company addresses. But there was no time/date on the entries, so I could not tell if they were the same person that moved. I was smart enough to keep all entries, and add time info to the new database. Cost? - Extra mailings, forever - some to wrong addresses.

Like it or not, most "working" computer programs are considered legacy items, and only grudgingly modified for any reason. A lot of business programs originate back to COBOL programs from the 1960s, and the language has been kept (COmmon Business Oriented Language). I guarantee the originators NEVER imagined that! Half a century old...

And adding or closing US Post Offices changes mailing addresses (city and zip code - WOW!) without having moved. (That also messes with your credit bureau records too!! (ratings? probably)) Ever thought of that?

Phone company "adjustments" similarly change area codes and exchanges (xxx)-yyy-1234.

Banks/companies merging/buying would have more that that to manage... Not excusing, just saying...

[phatemu]

09:53 AM on 11/18/2011

Berkeley Activist Hit By Police Explains How Several UC Regents Profit From Higher Levels Of Student Debt - by Lee Fang

Screenshot from video of police beating peaceful OccupyCal students and activists
Earlier today, OccupyCal protesters at the University of California Berkeley staged a mass “teach-in” and protest to stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and to rebuke police brutality. Last week, a video captured police viciously beating peaceful students as they locked arms to protect their encampment on campus.

One of the students hit by the police in the now infamous YouTube video, Honest Chung, addressed a crowd of well over a thousand people around 2:30pm PST. Chung explained the movement’s grievances, and said that the UC Regents, the governing body for the university system, had ordered the crack down. He also noted that several of the UC Regents retain positions at major banks, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The arrangement, Chung said, not only symbolized the larger problems of economic inequality and bank power over society, but places the UC Regents in a position to profit from student debt.

[darter22]

08:07 AM on 11/18/2011

Banks keep doing this stuff because there is no downside risk in it. If a few bank managers do televised perp walks in handcuffs and leg irons, this will quickly stop.

[JIll26]

07:22 AM on 11/18/2011

Do not understand all the continued whining about BofA when there is an obvious, effective solution. Do business elsewhere. This institution is not going to do the right thing because they profit from doing otherwise. Why would the government step in concerning the practices of our financial sector? If enough people are still voluntarily doing business with these places, how can their complaints be taken seriously? Pull your money and business from them. Even if they don't get the message from enough people doing the same thing, at least you've moved on to a friendlier bank.

[MikeB tx]

08:22 AM on 11/18/2011

Monster mega-banks and CUs both have problems.

Years ago, my Credit Union froze my accounts and bounced 24 checks when I paid an overdraft protection line of credit off early, (after Thanksgiving shopping). That pushed the next pmt due date 18 months, and it was manually (in)corrected to the previous year. The computer saw no payments in six months back then, and froze all my accounts, according to the CU's VP!

The CU made the checks and NSF fees good, and wrote a letter admitting it was their error.

Two months later, Sears cancelled my card when a credit bureau notified them I was six months delinquent on a loan! With the letter, Sears reopened my account at 1/4 the previous limit. The CU computer sent alerts to the credit bureaus when it froze my accounts, and the CU didn't know/couldn't fix that!

[JIll26]

03:32 PM on 11/18/2011

when we know something has gone terribly wrong, we cannot assume it will be taken care of. we have to make ourselves as pesky as mosquitos in July. Shouldn't have to but this is what can happen when we don't. Most of all, yank your business and tell everyone you know how horribly things went wrong.

[Robert SF]

11:55 AM on 11/18/2011

Are you really suggesting that a bank can steal $45,000 from someone, and it's the victim's fault for banking there in the first place? If you are, that's a truly moronic suggestion.

[JIll26]

02:05 PM on 11/18/2011

of course not. I'm suggesting that people refuse to do business with places like that.

[celtcalgal]

05:43 AM on 11/18/2011

Wow, two people with that same name.

[MikeB tx]

06:48 AM on 11/18/2011

It's been decades ago, but Sears did a similar thing with/to a co-worker. They merged his charge account with another customer that had the same name, and lived at the same street address, BUT, in different cities AND different (not nearby) states!

What are the odds of same name and same street name/address?

To add insult to injury, baby items were showing up on "his account" - crib, stroller, car seat, clothing, and he and his wife had been unsucessfully trying to have a baby for two years...

Somehow, Sears just couldn't understand how that happened!

[robhllnd2]

05:34 AM on 11/18/2011

If I lived in Greece & banked with any bank, foreign or local, I would check my monthly statements. That's irresponsible. Banks do make mistakes & freaky things can happen like who would think 2 people could have that same name & bank at the same bank?

[Bruce Coeling]

05:05 AM on 11/18/2011

If ANYONE has money in BofA, I would advise them to quickly withdraw and leave these crooks, they have no business being in business.

[Leon Stark]

07:43 AM on 11/18/2011

This should be the action taken with ALL the "TOO BIG TO FAIL" banks. Deposits are not the issue though. Renegotiate your loans with a smaller, local based bank or credit union, and move your LOANS to your LOCAL bank or credit union. Then you know where the note resides and they are not going to play games with you. You might even get a better loan rate and improve your credit rating.

If the BIG BANKS are not getting the income from the loan interest you are paying them, then they will see exactly what value that remains. Then they can speculate all they want without causing any further damage to the rest of us in the 99%.

[btinman82]

04:47 AM on 11/18/2011

Just more evidence how the 1% is screwing the 99%!! It will be fixed or we will fix it!

[lifehub]

04:38 AM on 11/18/2011

Banks will only do what the federal government allows or not regulate.

[JIll26]

07:26 AM on 11/18/2011

no...banks will do what their customers will put up with. Regulation is in the hands of the consumers. It's our money and we can move it wherever we wish.

[Robert SF]

11:58 AM on 11/18/2011

That view is so discredited in modern economics that you might as well believe in Lamarckism. That power you attribute to the consumer only works under small "c" capitalism. Under the crony, kleptocratic capitalism we've developed, consumers have virtually no power at all.

[Obillie]

04:25 AM on 11/18/2011

"This is not new news about BankAmerica...my daughter had simlar problems back
about 30 some years ago...they refuse to make the mistake good...they gave her
about half of what she had coming...they gave back half when it should of been the whole
amount...stopped dealing with them in all areas the whole family...never had this problem
with other banks be have dealt with...

[den246n]

04:10 AM on 11/18/2011

Isn't it time for B of A to just close up shop? How many more stupid decisions by this bank?