Consumer complaint received 2023-08-17
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: SC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I work as an XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX in XXXX SC. We are the victims of a phishing scheme where my email address and signature likeness were stolen and used to re-route/lure payments for repossession services rendered to our clients to a faked scammer account opened with the same business name. The email address utilized in this scheme was transposed by removing one of the ; S ' in the word professional which made it very hard for our clients to detect that this was not being sent by me at a glance. Also my signage of Thanks, XXXX was also applied to each email the scammers sent out making it appear more real to the clients. the faked email address used was : XXXX. 
The correct address that was phished is : XXXX. 
Note the difference in the spelling of Professional. We have been able to determine that this faked account opened in the name of XXXX XXXX XXXX, which is the name we previously used for business in XXXX XXXX MO. Several of our clients were sent the email I have attached as Exhibit 1 - advising them of an issue we apparently were having in our company ( that never happened ) and directing the clients to contact them for new banking information redirecting their direct ACH deposits of payments for repossession services rendered by XXXX XXXX XXXX to a fraudulent scammed bank account. One of our clients- XXXX XXXX XXXX unfortunately was fooled by the scheme and deposited payments meant for XXXX in the amount of {$13000.00} before becoming aware this was a phishing scheme. XXXX XXXX XXXX reached out to Wells Fargo Bank where the account resided to advise of the scam and obtain assistance in reimbursement of the misdirected funds. A copy of the banks response is attached as Exhibit 3. There is no indication that Wells Fargo opened a fraud case or reported this incident to the FTC or CFPB for investigation as they advised in the letter they reached out to the customer and asked if they would return the funds. A response has also not been received from the bank 's fraud team to advise they investigated this scam at all as being fraudulent. We are not aware of what information the client provided to them when reporting the case as we are in a different state. The banking information for the fraudulent account that we are aware of is : Account # - XXXX - Bank Name - Wells Fargo of XXXX XXXXXXXX MO and routing # XXXX. This account we found out was closed XX/XX/. I am filing this complaint on behalf of my client, XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX Georgia, Company - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX SC and myself as my personal signage and email was compromised by the scammer in pulling of this scheme, We have indications that they are still at this as now our company 's accounting email have been compromised. We would appreciate your review and investigation of this case as we are a small company and can't afford to just lose over {$13000.00} to scammers. Please see our contact information below and reach out should additional information or documentation be needed for you to investigate this case. XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX and XXXX XXXX - Toll Free XXXX ext. XXXX XXXX # - XXXX and website is : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX contacts are : XXXX - XXXX XXXX - Telephone : XXXX Ext XXXX - Email : XXXX. I can be reached by phone at : XXXX Ext. XXXX and email - XXXX. Our XXXX is XXXX XXXX - his phone contact : XXXX ext. XXXX and email : XXXX.

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