Consumer complaint received 2022-01-10
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: IN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Wells Fargo permitted 187 unauthorized check transactions deducting money from my account using clearly fraudulent checks and failed me as a customer to reimburse me for my loss as promised, and failed me in helping me in anyway look into the source of the criminal activity. 187 checks each {$190.00} cashed in several batches over the course of 3 months were allowed to be deducted from my account without question. None of the checks appeared to go through any sort of verification process which is an implicit promise of having checks requiring signatures ( the signature was either totally inaccurate or not present at all, the name on the account was wrong, the checks appeared nothing like my checks, the sequence was completely wrong, some of the images were clearly screen shots of printed checks on computer paper, See attachments ). It boggles my mind that in the day of basic image recognition software, that these checks were allowed to clear at all. The only piece of information that is accurate on the checks is my account number which was probably obtained from a security breach. 
I was indisposed due to health issues at this time so unfortunately was not closely monitoring my account. I admit that if I had been looking at my statements, I would have seen this immediately. However I like many indulge in automated bill pay, electronic statements and put my trust in the monitoring mechanisms advertised by the bank. 
When I did alert them to the issue, it had been going on for 3-4 months. I immediately closed my account and reported the fraud. 
The people I spoke to at the bank all told me that I would be supported, an investigation would be launched, and I would be reimbursed for minimally all the checks within 1 month to 3 months. What ended up happening is that I was reimbursed just over {$2000.00} of the {$37000.00} stolen from me. That amount totaled 1 single day of the fraudulent activity. I was then led on several months frustrating battle with the bank to even be allowed to speak to an investigator. As far as I know, no investigation was done, no support was given to me so I could even file a police report, no information was provided to me as to where the checks were cashed so no I could not get the jurisdiction. The simply would send letters saying claim denied. claim denied. All signed by a claims investigator which said I could call and speak to them. After countless calls, receiving no call back or answer, I employed an attorney to write a letter. Similar results. A letter back, claim denied and still no one willing to speak to me from the claims department. I was at such a loss I gave up and have been left without recourse. This is 100 % not ok. They put all the blame on me when there was a blatant pattern of fraud that ANY basic monitoring should catch. They send me countless communications about automated fraud protection and alerts, however that only applies to ATM card apparently. It permits zero monitoring on my checking account. 
I have been a member of Wells Fargo banking for decades. They have all my history, my signatures, everything that should easily alert to such an obvious and vicious attack of fraud robbing me of my hard earned money. I feel deceived as a consumer, let down by this bank I trusted and completely hung out to dry. There is clear criminal activity that has occurred here. Leaving me a victim with no recourse to seek justice. I filed a police report but was left without support since the jurisdiction was unknown. They refused to give me any information about the check cashing so I have no information. This fraud happened over the course ofXX/XX/XXXX. The rest ofXX/XX/XXXX I have spent fighting this, trying to get the bank to honor its own policies and to simply do the right thing and provide help for a long time customer. They are allowing criminals to thrive and rob from their consumers when they could easily aid this issue. Final note, I had active all the alerts and notifications that were available to me to help monitor my account. The nature of this fraud though somehow goes undetected. I repeat that even the most basic measures to validate checks and or detect abnormal activity would have immediately caught this issue. 
Their responses to me only sited the fact that I did not see the fraud. They never once responded to the fact that they failed to provide even the most minimal protection and monitoring that should have also helped catch this. They can't simultaneously advertise ultimate fraud protection and then solely blame the customer when it actually occurs at no fault of the customer. This is deception and displays a total lack of care for their customers in a time when their help is needed most. 
Without their help and resources, and their willingness to provide me even the most basic information, I am left with out and avenues to seek help and the criminals are free to continue this type of scam on others.

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