Consumer complaint received 2023-07-10
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: AZ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On Thursday XX/XX/15 at XXXX I was at work when I received a text message about a fraudulent XXXX XXXX, asking if it was me. Immediately after replying " no '' I received a call from my bank 's phone number, Wells Fargo. On the other line there was a XXXX XXXX that worked for Wells Fargo that was calling to help ensure my account was protected and that the transfer was indeed fraudulent. We spent XXXX minutes on the call, on which he said they'd located the device that was trying to make the fraudulent transfers, which was out of XXXX, TX. He also had me provide the XXXX code texted to me from a Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX. While we were speaking I received several emails from Wells Fargo stating that wire transfers had been set up on my account and a recipient by the name of " XXXX XXXX '' had been added as a wire recipient. I then received another email from Wells Fargo stating that a wire transfer in the amount of {$6100.00} had been initiated from my account. When I asked the Wells Fargo representative he stated that the same person who had tried to make the XXXX transfer was actively in my account trying to make another transaction, but we had caught him in real time and he wouldn't be able to complete it. By the end of the call, I was given peace of mind that neither the XXXX transaction nor the wire transfer had gone through, as the Wells Fargo fraud XXXX had walked me through it and caught it and safe guarded my account. By the end of the phone call he read back to me all of my account balances ( accurately, to the XXXX ) and thanked me for being a Wells Fargo customer for the past 20 years ( also accurate ). When I went back into work I checked my account balances and most of my money was gone, meaning the {$6100.00} wire transfer had gone through. I called back the same number that had called me from Wells Fargo ( XXXX ), thinking there must have been a mistake. I spoke to someone in the fraud department and they had no record of the fraudulent XXXX transfer. It took lots of convincing from a legitimate representative that the I'd been speaking to a scammer and that the {$6100.00} wire transfer had gone through as someone had gained access to my account and was acting as me. The scammer was spoofing Wells Fargo 's phone number and acting as a fraud claims representative. They knew I was a Wells Fargo customer, and had my phone number, username and password. 

I filed a fraud claim with Wells Fargo within XXXX minutes of the event and went into a branch to file an escalated claim as well. Both have been denied by the bank, stating that it seemed that I or someone with my credentials gained access my account and according to their wire terms and conditions, they are not responsible. The only action they took is requesting my money back from XXXX bank, which is where the account was that received my funds. That was, of course, denied as the funds were no longer in the receiving account ( of course, why would a scammer send back the funds? ). Wells Fargo claimed to do an investigation of my case, but I do not believe they looked into what happened, rather they simply deferred to their terms and conditions as reason to deny my claim. Someone stole my account information and was able to act as me within my own banking account. I believe Wells Fargo had a significant data breach for a scammer to know that I was a customer, have my phone number and then have access to my banking username and password. During this process I've been told by multiple Wells Fargo employees that there have been many complaints similar to mine, yet they refuse to take any responsibility. I have also filed a police report and will happily provide the case number if needed. I have since shut that account and factory reset my phone just to be safe. 

Learning that Wells Fargo will not be taking any responsibility has been devastating, as I am XXXX XXXX XXXX  and this was nearly everything I had. Thank you so much for your attention.

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