Consumer complaint received 2015-06-01
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I had a personal checking, and a business checking account with Wells Fargo. There had been some previous fraud activity by a XXXX relative on my account, so I added extra security measures by requiring a verbal password every time changes were to be made on my accounts. The bank recently on XXXX XXXX, 2015 allowed this person to close my account, open a new account with my money, and also withdraw money. This person was also allowed to claim many of my purchases as fraud in an attempt to get more money. I found out about the incident when I tried to use my bank card to pay for parking and it was declined. I called customer service to see what the problem was, only to be told that they could not help me unless I had the fraud claim reference number ( the report which I did not file ). The bank did not follow any protocol by asking for the verbal password. Instead, I was left unable to have access to my money until I was able to go into a branch and prove my identity. After the bank verified that this was a false fraud claim, the bank still moved forward with honoring the claim. Many of the purchases, which included personal bills and other business expenses, were returned to the bank. This reversal of payment caused me to incur canceled check fees, shut-off notices, and I had to buy my XXXX back since the hosting service was XXXX of the purchases filed on the false fraud claim. I had to repay all of those bills with my own money to avoid more fees and to keep my utilities in service. Later, the bank gave me a credit of {$1300.00} which was part of the amount filed as fraud. I went into a branch to verify what the credit was for, and I was told that this was my money because the bank realized that they made a mistake. The bank ended up taking the credit back from me, leaving my account negative over {$1100.00}. The bank said that they took the credit back because they realized that I was the one who made the purchases and that they could not honor my claim. The credit was not listed as a temporary credit ( as they usually list it as temporary until they finish the investigation ). I explained to them that I was not the one who made the claim and that I was told that the credit was given to me because of the money that had already been returned to the bank from the merchants. It then became a problem with miscommunication because none of the bank 's departments understood what was going on even after I explained it to them many times. The problem is that now, I still dont have the money that the bank took from the merchants, nor do I have the credit they gave me. When the person filed the false claim, they also were allowed to withdraw cash, which the bank did not honor. So I am out of all of this money and the bank has not lost anything. They are refusing to take responsibility for their mistake. They gave this person all of my personal information including print-outs of my purchases, documentation stating the password on my account, my business contacts, and a lot of other sensitive information. Wells Fargo should be held accountable for this breach in security.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief