Consumer complaint received 2024-01-11
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: VA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX a person named XXXX claiming to be a Wells Fargo agent contacted me from a the Wells Fargo phone number. They verified me with the same 6 digit verification code system as Wells Fargo uses. I then asked them to provide proof they were actually Wells Fargo and they provided me my account balances and most recent activity on the account like past employee interactions. They then asked to verify a wire transfer that was initiated on the business account that I confirmed as being fraudulent. This is also a normal Well Fargo procedure. Once I confirmed the Transfer should not be initiated the person informed me that they would put a hold on the account, and we would file a stop transfer by filling out a contact card on the online wire transfer service in the name of the case manager for the fraud case. I filed the card but did not initiate any transfer and confirmed no money would be removed from the account. I also checked the account balances through the online banking. At this point the representative told me they would be opening a new account to transfer the money into to change the account number so that the person would not be able to access the account anymore. The new account was then reflected in my online banking. As soon as this happened my accounts locked at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX eastern time. At this point all money was still in the account but my online banking was shut down. The customer service person then told me that they would need to do an investigation and they would call me back the next day between XXXX XXXX. At this point I received 4 emails from Wells Fargo one saying my contact preference had been changed, one saying my accounts were locked, one saying there had been an attempted wire transfer and one with a case ID number which is exactly what I was told would happen. The next day I did not receive a call since I assumed my online banking would still be locked and I wouldn't be able to check anything I called Wells Fargo to see what was going on. At this point they told me that my accounts had all been unlocked and that the XXXX dollars had been transferred and that the notes they had on file for the interaction did not match my recollection of the events. I then tried to log into my online banking and found it to be unlocked and the money to be gone. I then asked to speak to a manager who told me that the accounts should have never been unlocked and it appeared that someone had hacked my account. I was then put in touch with a different person who was supposed to initiate a recall on the money and started a fraud case on the incident. I was then told that they would make a decision in 10 days. After 8 days they contacted me to tell me that the case would be considered a scam and that they would not refund the money. I pointed out that they were the ones that locked and then unlocked the account without my permission and allowed the transfer to happen which they confirmed did happen. After I pointed this out they said they would escalate the case and contact me later. They then sent me an escalation case number who I called which I contacted they then informed me that this was the wrong department and that I would need another number.

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