Consumer complaint received 2023-06-11
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XXXX morning, XX/XX/2023, my wife turned on her computer and was immediately confronted by a flashing and vocal warning not to touch or do anything to her computer until she called the shown number, purported to be from XXXX XXXX  center, The desktop display had XXXX XXXX  in the background with several overlays We called that number which was answered by a XXXX XXXX from what she said was XXXX XXXX. She said that her XXXXXXXX XXXX was XXXX and she was a XXXX XXXX engineer. She said that this was complaint number XXXX XXXX. 
Using the XXXX + XXXX command, we brought up several lists, the first of which showed that my IP network number has been compromised by foreign entities, including XXXX. Another scrolled down thought my directory and showed at the bottom that XXXX XXXX software had been installed on my computer and several transactions using XXXX had been made to XXXX websites in XXXX. The line script was larger that the directory listing and it showed up at the very bottom of the screen. 
I was told to pull up and review my bank and credit card statements for any unusual activity, and there were none. I was then asked to give the Customer Support telephone numbers for my bank and credit card company, and to only answer the phone if one of these XXXX numbers called me or if she called under her secure line XXXX. The women then got off the line and said that she would return later, but to no use any of our phones or other devices until the matter was resolved. 
Shortly thereafter I received a call from XXXX of the numbers I had given her ( Wells Fargo Customer Support XXXX ) and was immediately transferred to another telephone number with a different area code ( XXXX ). A man calling himself XXXX said that he was from Wells Fargo XXXX department and upon reviewing my files he saw that three transactions had taken place between XXXX and XXXX XXXX  that morning : XXXX preapproved transactions to foreign XXXX websites and XXXX to XXXX. In total he said they were a little over {$30000.00}. I told him that I had no knowledge of these. He then said that he could remove the XXXX charge for {$2900.00} but could not remove the foreign ones because they were preapproved. He said that the only way the others could be removed was for me to remove the {$30000.00} from my bank account very quickly and deposit it into a new account that I set up called Secure Banking in the Federal Reserve. At this point I was getting suspicious but decided to continue on to see where it led. 
He maintained continuous contact with me by cell phone as I drove to the bank. He asked that once I got to the parking lot, tell him. When I did so, he said that they believed someone in my branch was complicit and to no mention anything to anyone in the bank. He said that If I couldnt obtain all of the {$30000.00} due to cash on hand, take as much as I could. That would suffice. My suspicion grew stronger, but I withdrew {$15000.00} which is as much as they could do. 
Back in the parking lot I told him what I had, and he said to drive to a local XXXX XXXX and Gasoline center where they had a machine that could set up my account. So, I drove to the XXXX XXXX  and once there he instructed me to go to the Bitcoin matching that looked like an ATM and set up my account, deposit the money and use a QR code that he supplied to my phone to complete the transaction. I was certain at this point that it was a scam and told him so. He said that if I needed further proof, he would have the IRS contact me to assure me that the bitcoin transaction would be done with the Federal Reserve with their XXXX XXXX. I hung up. Not five minutes later a call supposedly from the IRS showed up on my phone. 
Subsequently I have blocked all of their calls from all of these number and redeposited my money back in the bank. 
I called Wells Fargo Customer Support directly and they said nothing was out of the ordinary in my account.

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