Consumer complaint received 2023-02-18
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: SD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a text from an existing thread used by Wells Fargo many times in the past asking if I had attempted a XXXX XXXX transfer for XXXX dollars. 
I responded no to the text as I have done many times in the past. Within 30 seconds, I received a call from the Wells Fargo customer service number on the back of my debit card. 
The caller said that he was from Wells Fargo and was responding to attempted fraud using my XXXX account. He then proceeded to walk me through a charge reversal procedure to ensure that the funds would not be send via the attempted fraud. I was walked through XXXX transactions for XXXX and XXXX dollars. I was instructed to use WF for the first name of the transaction for Wells Fargo and XXXX for the last name, my first name to send the money back to my account. I was sent verification codes from existing threads that I have used during transactions through Wells Fargo and XXXX before. I entered the verification codes as instructed and was told that they would monitor my account for 48 hours to ensure the safety of the transactions. I immediately called Wells Fargo and was told that it was indeed fraud and opened two cases but was told that I was probably too late. 
The next morning, the fraudster called me again and said that he was following up on the fraud case and asked me what happened. I told him my story and he very sympathetically asked if he could log into my account and ensure that my alerts were set up. I asked him for the case numbers and he immediately hung up.

I have filed 3 different claims with Wells Fargo and have gone all the way up to their executive division and have been told every time that because I authorized the transactions, there was no recourse. 
I have even had a lawyer draw up a letter with documentation of the phone calls and texts showing that the numbers were Wells Fargo numbers that I responded to and that I expected a refund of my money, once again I was told that they were not interested in helping me, a 30 plus year customer of Wells Fargo. 
Since this occurrence, I have received many calls from Wells Fargo numbers attempting the same scam over again. 
I have no confidence in banking with Wells Fargo when I can not be certain if anyone that I am talking with is in fact my bank. 
I truly feel that Wells Fargo should share in the responsibility of this occurring to me and thousands of others across the country. If there is no security in one of the largest banks in the world towards their identity, how can I as a customer have the confidence that my funds and identity are safe. 
XXXX dollars is a month 's wages that I lost because I had confidence that my bank was looking out for me, and I can not afford for this to happen. 
This has caused a great deal of hardship, anxiety and expense to me and my wife and I feel violated and cheated by of course the fraudster, but also let down by Wells Fargo.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation