Consumer complaint received 2022-11-20
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XXXX at XXXX XXXX, I got a call from Wells Fargo fraud number saying that there was suspicious activity on my business checking account. They said that my card was attempting to be used at a XXXX in XXXX. They also said that a wire transfer was being initiated. They had all of my information from Wells Fargo to include all of my recent transactions and the last wire transfer that I had done. They put me on hold several times and kept asking if I knew an XXXX XXXX and I kept telling them no. I got suspicious at that point and pulled into the Wells Fargo branch on XXXX and XXXX. The teller told me to hang up the phone immediately and call the fraud department. By that point, they had already wired {$23000.00} out of my business checking account. 

I received emails during the fraud call. One was received at XXXX as a notification that my email password had been changed. Then, at XXXX saying that a wire transfer recipient had been added. 

At called the Wells Fargo fraud department at XXXX and stayed on the phone with them for XXXX minutes. they froze my business account and opened p a fraud case. 

On XXXX at XXXX XXXX  I called Wells Fargo back to see if there were any updates. At this point, the rep said that I should be getting a Letter of Affidavit in the mail that I would have to get notarized and return to Wells Fargo. The original call on XXXX never mentioned anything about a letter of affidavit. 

I got off the phone and called back at XXXX to see if I could get any additional information. At this point, they provided no help. 

On XX/XX/14 I had not received a letter of affidavit from the bank, or any information as to where the case was. I went into the XXXX XXXX branch. The representative got on the phone and called the claim department to get an update. He told me that I should be receiving the letter in the mail that day. He also told me to file a police report which is the first mention of a police report needing to be filed since the process had started. 

I left the bank and filed a police report with XXXX Police Dept. The case # is XXXX. 

I did not receive the letter that day, but I Idid receive a letter from Wells Fargo saying they were going to close the claim as it was clear that I initiated at the transfer. Which was clearly not the case. At which point, XXXX XXXX, I got back on the phone with the Wells Fargo fraud department. They were no help whatsoever. I was on the phone with them for XXXX hour and XXXX minutes. The rep said that she had put in a request for the investigator to call me back in the next XXXX hours. They also said that the would put another Letter of Affidavit in the mail since I never received the first one. The next day I called again as I had not heard from anyone. The rep said that they would put in another request to escalate the case and have the investigator call me. 

At this point, I had heard of a colleague that the same thing happened to. I reached out to her and told her my full story. She was shocked, as it was the same line ( someone is trying to use your card in a XXXX in XXXX ) same name on the wire ( XXXX XXXX ) and same transfer bank ( XXXX ) exactly like her scam. She told me to file with XXXX, FBI and FTC. I filed the complaint with FTC XXXX an called FBI. 

The next day, I reached out to someone in the marketing department at Wells Fargo and provided the full story. He also said that he would escalate the case. I received a call from the complaint department that they said they were also going to escalate the case and would keep me posted. Thursday, I had not heard from anyone, nor did I receive the letter of Affidavit. On Friday, I had not heard from anyone, nor did I receive the letter of affidavit. At which point, I went back into the branch. I was on the phone as was the representative. On my end, I asked that the case be escalated once again and to have another Letter of Affadavit sent. The representative kept getting transferred throughout Wells Fargo. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, the representative finally got off the phone and told me that since it was online fraud that Wells Fargo is not responsible and that I would have to go to small claims court.

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 monetary relief