Consumer complaint received 2023-08-09
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023, I received a phone call with the caller ID, " XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. '' ( XXXX ) requesting to speak to XXXX but I confirmed with her that XXXX was my last name 10 years ago. She asked me if I used to live at " XXXX. XXXX, FL. I confirmed with her that used to my old address. The lady identified herself as " XXXX XXXX '' from XXXX XXXX  XXXX wanting to confirm if I opened an online bank account on XX/XX/XXXX. I responded saying " no. '' On her end, she informed me that someone had opened an online bank account under my name and would need extra alerts on the account. She asked me if I made a XXXX transfer of {$1300.00} to an individual named, " XXXX XXXX. '' I answered. " no. '' She stated on her end that there was a pending transaction on my account for the amount of {$1300.00}. She instructed me to log into my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and my wells fargo bank account and enter XXXX that she was going to give me a confirmation code to stop the transfer. I was also given a confirmation number for this transaction, " XXXX XXXX. '' I did two transfers on that day with the confirmation code that she was giving me. She instructed me to not log into my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and my wells fargo account because she was going to work on the fraud transfer. The next following day, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a phone call from the same phone number and caller ID, " XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX '' ( XXXX ), from " XXXX XXXX '' also identifying himself as a XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX Fraud Department. He was assigned to work on my case. On that day, I was given two confirmation codes, ( XXXX ) & ( XXXX ). I was instructed again, that I needed to enter to my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ( XXXX ) and wells fargo through XXXX. He told me that a refund would appear the next day. On XX/XX/XXXX, " XXXX '' called me again and asked if I have received a refund on my account. I replied saying " No '' and they told me that there was an issue with the confirmation codes and had to be given new confirmation codes. I was given two new additional codes that day with the same instructions that I had to do before. They asked me if I had other bank accounts enrolled in XXXX. I replied saying " Yes '' and they asked me to login into my Wells Fargo account to add alerts on my XXXX account. I also did 3 transfers in my Wells Fargo account. ( Checkings and savings account ). I received several phone calls on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX from " XXXX XXXX '' and " XXXX XXXX '' wanting to confirm if the funds were back on my account. I confirmed saying " no because I realized that the codes that they were giving me, it turned into actual money transfers. '' I told them that I was not going to take from them anymore confirmation codes because I was not receiving my money back when they informed me that I should receive a refund within 24 hours and that's when I realized that something was wrong. They started arguing with me saying that " they wanted to help me out to get my money back but I needed to cooperate with them. '' Every transfer I made, they were giving me emails with my name on it. These are the emails that I were able to write down as part of the instructions. 

" XX/XX/2023 : {$1300.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1900.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1900.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1400.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1900.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1000.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1500.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$190000.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1900.00}, recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1500.00} recipient XXXX '' These are my transfers from my Wells Fargo account : " XX/XX/2023 : {$1000.00} recipient XXXX '' " XX/XX/2023 : {$1000.00} recipient XXXX " XX/XX/2023 : {$690.00} recipient XXXX '' " XXXX XXXX '' gave me a phone number to check on the status of the refund. The phone number is ( XXXX ) and to call them after XXXXXXXX XXXX. His direct extensions was " XXXX. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, " XXXX '' called me again to follow up on the refund. Once again I advised him that I was not going to sign into my XXXX XXXX XXXX or wells fargo account, he proceeded to transferring me to " XXXX XXXX '' and I told her that I called myself " XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX '' to confirm this transactions and they confirmed that there was no transactions pending. So It was confirmed that I was a victim of a Scam. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' and spoke to an agent to report the scam. I was given two claim numbers. I called Wells Fargo and also reported about the scam but did not receive a claim number from them. On XX/XX/XXXX, I filed a police report about the incident.

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