Consumer complaint received 2022-09-14
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On Saturday, XXXX XXXX, because XXXX delivered my ordered items to a wrong house indicated through an unrecognizable place in their confirming picture. Hence, to ask for a refund or a re-delivery of my product from XXXX, I looked up XXXX phone number on XXXX and called : ( XXXX ) XXXX. A male XXXX person ( indicated clearly by his accent ) picked up the phone and said that he was an XXXX employee, and asked me what he could help me with on that they. I explained my situation about the lost products, and asked him for how I could get my products delivered. The person gave me instruction to firstly download an app named XXXX Remote Desktop, and asked me to turned on the app, read to number on the screen to him, then follow his order to go to my XXXX account, do steps that I didnt understand ( a day later, I realized that the stepped allow him to scam {$100.00} XXXX XXXX from me ). After quite many steps, the scammer asked me to go to my orders, and showed him the amount of money for my items, and told me that he needed to send me a refund, but my XXXX account were frozen for 30 minutes due to the activity having been done before. Then, he asked me whether used any money apps like XXXX, XXXX, I told him that I used XXXX. Then, he scammer told me to open my bank account, and follow his steps to verify my ownership to both my XXXX account and banking account by going to XXXX, and sending out codes for verification purposes. I trusted him to be an XXXX employee and follow his steps, adding in new recipient : XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) and ending up sending out four codes : XXXX ( {$740.00} ), XXXX ( {$670.00} ), XXXX ( {$540.00} ), XXXX ( {$540.00} ) to this recipient. During this whole time ( 3 hours ), the scammer hung up on me after I sent out the first two codes, and called me back using a different phone number : ( XXXX ) XXXX, and kept on reassuring me that the XXXX XXXX was not a real person, but just a dummy account created by XXXX, which couldnt receive any money even if I wanted to send money to it, and the digit I sent out was simply verification codes in the process. The scammer even provided me with his supposedly personal employee information : XXXX, XXXX XXXX to reassure me and gain my trust to keep follow the steps. He even transferred my call to his supervisor because I broke down many times throughout the process, and was crying out loud on the phone for the feelings of being scammed. But, with the trust that it was a real employee, I tried to put faith in humanity and followed the steps trusting their words that my money would appear back because the transactions were pending, and that after I finished the next step, all money would be back on my account. Eventually, when he asked me about my XXXX limit, and about sending my codes to another recipient : XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) with the codes of XXXX ( {$980.00} ). I couldnt take it anymore and used another phone to call another number supposedly for XXXX. I asked the person on the line to help me check the number ( XXXX ) XXXX, the person told me that that number didnt belong to XXXX and it came from XXXX XXXX I froze, broke down, and cried even louder that I just lost {$2500.00} from scam caller. The scammer heard that and hang up, then I immediately called my bank Wellsfargo to try to stop the XXXX transactions. I filed 4 XXXX claims, and called to Wellsfargo for so many times ( one time every two days ) because I was so scared and that as a student, {$2500.00} meant a lot to me. It was a part of my tuition. Wellsfargo gave me 4 claim numbers : XXXX ( {$740.00} ), XXXX ( {$670.00} ), XXXX ( {$540.00} ), XXXX ( {$540.00} ). After waiting and calling back and forth to Wellsfargo to check. They simply closed my claims and provided no way for me to pursue my case ( {$2500.00} loss due to scam caller ) except to contact them and request copies of the document they used to complete their research. I am so devastated and disappointed in the customer protection system of Wellsfargo, and wanted justice to be done to the scam caller. But, apparently, I could do nothing against this type of scam when I was responsible for authorizing my own transactions. I found this fact ridiculous and extremely unbearable.

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