Consumer complaint received 2023-08-15
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I bank with Wells Fargo. On XXXX   at XXXX I received a text message stating someone had tried to use XXXX  to wire XXXX from my account. It looked like an automated text from Wells Fargo. The text was immediately followed by a phone call appearing to be from Wells Fargos customer service number. I was in a meeting and ignored it. They called me again and I answered to which they informed me of the attempted XXXX and another attempted wire from my savings account - the second being for XXXX. I told them no, this was fraud and I did not attempt to wire any money to anyone. They then walked me through verifying my account which I did. They then said that I had to file a claim that involved submitting a dummy transfer from my account and that this was the only way I could do it without going into a branch. There are no Wells Fargo branches near me since Ive moved so I felt like this was my only option. They walked me through the dummy transfer that included sending verification texts from my account. Because I received the texts when they sent them, and because they were spoofing Wells Fargos customer service number, I believed them even though the whole thing weirded me out. I finished with them and they kept me on the line while they changed over my accounts to keep me protected from fraud. This kept me from answering any calls from Wells Fargo about a wire transfer. They told me to stay out of my account for 24 hours while they tracked the usage for those people that tried to hack me. Again - this was from people posing as Wells Fargo. I literally gave them all of my information for verification purposes and they used it to do basically anything with my account. I received a notification of an approved wire transfer, even though I had never talked with from Wells Fargo at around XXXX. I think the scammers used the info they gained from me to approve the transfer.  

At XXXX I was thinking the whole thing felt weird so I called Wells Fargo to ask about it and, of course, the said it never happened. At that point they deactivated my online account, supposedly marked the transfer as fraud, and transferred me to someone to set me up with all new accounts and card information who explained to me that they would review everything and get back to me in 5-10 business days. I called back Friday morning, XXXX, and talked to someone. They mentioned in passing that the wire had been marked as unauthorized and that was associated with the claim but it would take 5-10 days for the claim to process. Also, during this time, a banker aquaintenance sent me a link to XXXX. This clearly states that my whole experience is a known Wells Fargo scam.

Fast forward to Tuesday, XXXX. I called Wells Fargo to check on the claim and they said the claims is denied b/c the transfer was approved. Yes, I may have approved the transfer accidentally, initially, because I thought I was talking to them, but they never verified it over the phone with me (because the scammers kept me on the phone). Their attempt to pull it back was to send a note to the other bank (XXXX XXXX) to let them know the wire was unauthorized. Then they just wait to see what happens?

Apparently this is a known scam. Wells Fargo has to know about the scam. I told them it happened less than 3 hours after the initial wire. It doesnt appear like Wells Fargo attempted at all to retrieve the money even though the scammers obviously believed they could if it was within 24 hours of the wire (and 3 hours is far, far below that mark). What is their process for this. Why wasnt it effective at this time? No one can tell me. XXXX gone from my savings because people pretending to be them did all the things Wells Fargo does. Im not saying Im not an XXXX  - because there were red flags in my mind that caused me to reach out after. What I am mad about is that I reported the wire as unauthorized almost as soon as it happened and their bureacracy is saying 1) it wasnt fraud b/c it was authorized even though they never verified it over the phone and 2) a different department handles wire reclaims (not the fraud department who is saying their part is done). I feel like Wells Fargo isnt doing their part to protect their customers from scams/ fraud (which are pretty similar in my opinion) and using bureacracy to get out of responsibility. All they have done to reclaim the wire is send notice to the other bank and just wait for them to respond. They sent a second notice today XXXX) and will wait for a similar no response. If this is the procedure used across the board to handle this kind of thing, then banks everywhere can have a gentlemans agreement not to respond and then its not their problem to deal with.

Wells Fargo needs to be help accountable for their banking process. My cell phone company has more steps to verify I am who I say I am and thats for a XXXX cell phone, not an institution that regular processes huge sums of money. They need to do better.

I will also say that the online account they compromised and used for this is one I literally never use. We do all of our banking transactions through my husbands online account (because of the way bill pay was initially). I log in to this account maybe 2-3 times per year and thats to easily look at my credit score. To send an XXXX wire through this account would be extremely weird and there was nothing to verify it pending the send. We also never send wires or do anything from our savings account. If we need to access the money in savings I transfer it from savings to checking. If they look, there would never be any money spent directly from savings. 

All this to say, Wells Fargo IS NOT going to lengths to protect their customers and they need to be 100% held accountable.

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