Consumer complaint received 2023-01-09
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: ND
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
This involves a charge to a Wells Fargo credit card ending in XXXX which actually expired XX/XX/XXXX. I asked that this credit card account be blocked to all transactions more than a year ago due to egregious repeated fraud that happened to my Wells Fargo checking account which was then completely closed. Wells Fargo did close the checking account and did return the monies that were taken using sight draft fraud which should have never been successful. 

I kept this credit card account in existence simply because I have been told it is better for credit rating purposes to not close credit cards. I also put a block on the account. This credit card has not been used by me for years. A charge of {$36.00} showed up on the account XX/XX/XXXX under the name XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX AZ. 

There was a domain hosting service with whom I authorized use of my credit card between XXXX and XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX I spoke with the domain hosting company and removed my card from billing on the account which was held in the name of another person and connected to several websites. I believe that this is the same domain hosting company that was hosting those websites. Either way, the charge represents fraud. Either I have never done business with this hosting company or the charge is the result of the hosting company charging a recurring fee or new fee on a card that is expired and was removed from being authorized for use on that account. 

I am lucky I actually noticed this bill and this surprise charge after returning from vacation. I have not used the card in years and only the paranoia of having dealt with Wells Fargo and " surprises '' of the past makes me periodically check billing which should show nothing. I was not happy about what I saw. 

I called the Wells Fargo credit card XXXX number on XXXX and my call did not go to the credit card services, but instead was routed to the collections department. That is a red flag. I told the person on the phone that I would like information about how that charge could show up and what Wells Fargo knows about the company submitting the charge. The only information that I received from the Wells Fargo employee, was however, the information on the credit card billing notice, and the number and hours of the Wells Fargo " fraud '' unit. I called XXXX. They put me on hold for a few minutes but did eventually pick up. 

I went through the same story with the person in the " fraud '' unit. Now, why I put the word fraud in quotations is because the employees at Wells Fargo tell me that if I had done business with a company and had a block on my account, and removed my card from billing as I had, they would still process a recurring charge. And that is what they did. And then Wells Fargo would call that a " dispute ''. Wells Fargo seems to have a very flexible idea of what kind of financial transactions fit outside the definition of fraud. 

As the employee noted, many internet hosting companies charge for services every two years. However, this company, assuming it is the same one had not charged for services since I removed my card from billing on the account more than 30 months ago. 

So I really have an issue with both this XXXX XXXX Services company and Wells Fargo together. I think I should be able to block recurring services where I have already asked to remove my card from an account to have access to my account. It is pretty amazing that Wells Fargo makes a game of pretending that they simply can't up front give a customer the option to block everything from coming through a card if the customer up front says, " block transactions on the card ''. 

Now as I spoke to the next person in the chain of people, maybe this was " XXXX '' she claimed that now the account would actually be completely blocked. I sure hope so. I also asked that no new cards be issued to this account that might be used by others at some old address and then told that by Wells Fargo that I have a " dispute '' but not a " fraud ''. I certainly hope so. But why do I have to ask twice to have a financial institution do what I think is basic fraud protection for an account that is meant to be blocked? You get the feeling that the bank is incentivized somehow to NOT protect against fraud. 

To Wells Fargo : 1. I'm not wasting any more time speaking to Wells Fargo. I don't want to know what they consider NOT to be fraud. That is famously skewed. Any communication about this credit card issue definitely needs to be in writing. 
2. Any charges that Wells Fargo assigns as " late charges '' and " fees '' on top of a fraudulent charge by the domain hosting company are fraud by Wells Fargo. 
3. I am not paying Wells Fargo for a domain hosting company charge levied to a credit card which they were told was not available for use on an account I to which I have had no access for more than two years. That may not seem like fraud to Wells Fargo, but it is. 
4. I don't want anything done to my credit card account that affects my credit, but I want to be sure that there is no transactions on this card unless I go into a bank in person and ask for the card to be allowed to be used for transactions again. 




The relationship of Wells Fargo to fraud in lending is problematic.

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