Bank of America Now Target of Fake Press Release

By David Benoit

By David Benoit and Dan Fitzpatrick

There is a Brian Moynihan imposter on the loose.

This morning a quite realistic-looking press release said the bank has launched a new campaign — “Your Bank of America.” Dressed in BofA’s famed “flagstaff” logos and color–it’s even the right fonts–the “release” says the bank is on a quest to find out how banking should happen and wants America’s help.

On a related website, yourbofa.com, a letter purporting to be from CEO Brian Moynihan kicks off with “Today, it’s time to acknowledge that our Bank isn’t working anymore.”

Bank of America says the release is a fake. The bank reports its first-quarter earnings tomorrow morning.

The website features several pages that carry on the typical arguments against BofA, and while there doesn’t appear to be anyone taking credit yet, it bears all the hallmarks of the recent Occupy protests against the bank. The site appears to take issue with BofA for “funding coal” and for not paying taxes in 2010, a year it lost money. There are also several snide remarks about mortgages.

A recent protest by several women at a Moynihan presentation raised the same issues. That protest, in which the women removed their shirts and shouted “Bust up Bank of America before it busts up America,” was claimed by Super(S)heroes, Women Occupy, Codepink, Rainforest Action Network and Public Citizen, all activist groups.

A phone call placed to the number on the fake press release was answered by a “Bengo Guenther,” who said he had talked with a member of “corporate media” at Bank of America, adding “she informed me there was a snafu.”

In a second call, the person said he worked for a “newly formed company called yourbofa.com” and that he has worked for “a number of large companies on their campaign to ameliorate their position — their social and spiritual position perhaps you could say.”

He said this was his biggest client and denied affiliation with Codepink, Women Occupy or Occupy Wall Street.

The premise of the “Your Bank of America” campaign is to argue that American taxpayers should be running the bank.

In one interactive page the site urges visitors to create their own advertising campaign for the bank, mocking the campaign Bank of America has in which “spokespeople” say why they bank there. The website allows users to pick between several stereotypical jobs as well as a big pile of money, a map of the U.S. and a foreclosed home. The inanimate objects all bear a pair of eyes.