It would be interesting to know whether this couple ever paid any of their mortgage payments after they started getting the calls. “trouble paying....” is kind of nebulous to me.
Did their loan go into collections? Did they have to move out? Are they still in the home?
I believe that people should honor their contractual obligations and pay their bills/loans. But, BofA's actions were way over the line.
Was it worth $1M? Probably not. But, many of the debt collection agencies are complete scumbags. The penalty for abusive behavior has to be punitive, or they will just consider it to be a cost of doing business.
I've dealt with a few of them, when they thought I was either the creditor or related to the creditor. I tried to be reasonable and resolve their error, but I think they just enjoyed being abusive. I eventually had to threaten to file harassment charges against one to shut them up.