Consumer complaint received 2018-03-29
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: DE
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Problem with cash advance

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX XXXX and am XXXX years old and live with my wife in XXXX Delaware. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from a person claiming to be an attorney and stating that my grandson needed financial help due to a car accident he was involved in while traveling in New York. The person asked if I had a Wells Fargo account. I told him I did and was told he needed {$8500.00} in order to keep my grandson from going to jail for life. He instructed me to go to the Wells Fargo branch and withdraw the cash and deposit it to a Wells Fargo account he provided. He instructed me to tell the bank that I needed the money to deposit to a contractor 's account to help my grandson do work on his house. 
I was instructed not to tell anyone in my family about the situation and not to contact my grandson or his mother for a few hours to allow him time to explain the situation to her. As his XXXX year old grandfather, I felt threatened and felt he was in danger so I complied with his request. 
I went to the Wells Fargo branch in XXXX XXXX Delaware - branch XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX DE XXXX and tried to withdraw the cash, however, they told me I did not have enough money. I started to leave the bank and the teller called me back and said that I had a credit line associated with the account and I could get a cash advance. I had no idea there was a credit line attached to the account and assume my wife opened it for overdraft protection. ( My wife typically handles our finances so I had no idea how much I had in the accounts and she has recently had XXXX XXXX and can not communicate, so I could not ask her or tell her about the situation. ) The teller processed the transaction withdrawing the money from the credit line and deposited the money to the account I provided. The money was deposited to a person by the name of XXXX XXXX XXXX account XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX. I contacted my son a few hours later and told him what happened and he immediately called my grandson who knew nothing about the incident. My son and I called the bank and they transferred us to the Fraud Hotline - we were put on hold for 30 minutes and then told we had to go back to the Wells Fargo branch to have the transaction reversed. We drove to the branch and they were just closing and would not let us in. We continued to try to get the transaction reversed or a hold put on the funds over the phone but were told there was nothing they could do since the money was deposited into an account that did not belong to me. The branch was closed the following day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) due to a snow storm with XXXX inches of accumulation. We went to the Delaware State Police and filed a police report. We returned to the Wells Fargo branch the following day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and the service manager XXXX XXXX took the information but did not offer to reverse the transaction or put a hold on the account the funds were deposited in to. She said she didn't think there was anything they could do and advised we contact the Fraud Dept. and she seemed as if she didn't know why the Fraud Dept.  sent us to see her. 
As of today, XX/XX/XXXX we have not heard anything from Wells Fargo. I feel as though Wells Fargo has done nothing for me as an elderly client who was scammed out of a significant amount of money. They are doing everything to protect the account of a fraudulent person and when brought to their attention Wells Fargo does not seem to show concern. I will also be filing a claim with the banking commission to investigate Wells Fargo and their ties to a fraudulent account that could potentially be violating the bank secrecy act regarding currency transaction reporting.

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