Consumer complaint received 2019-04-25
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Bounced checks or returned payments

Complaint:
I was contacted on XX/XX/XXXX by phone number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, to translate a document from English to XXXX XXXX which is my native language ). The reason I did not doubt this is because i have applied for translating jobs on XXXX XXXX XXXX plenty of times and thought someone is finally contacting me for that. So they said to email them at XXXX so they can send me the document to go over and tell them my price. I looked over the document and told them my price would be {$3600.00} for the 32 pages and they said that I will get payed half money before and half after the assignment. So i said thats fine and 3-4 days later they sent their first check which i received on XX/XX/XXXX through USPS. Also, they informed me that there was a slight issue in payment and the sponsor 's ammount was accidentally sent to me but this can be fixed once the funds are in my account. i said thats ok and went to wells fargo in XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to cash the check. i entered the bank and went to the teller who was a XXXX XXXX XXXX probably in her late XXXX and told her that i want to cash out this check ( {$4100.00} ). She took the check from me and took my id and said alright. She was processing the check and was taking a while to do it. She clearly said the words I AM VERIFYING THE CHECK TO SEE IF IT'S GOOD and i said alright take your time. Then, she called another banker for approval and he did something on the computer and they said you're good to go and handed me {$4100.00} in cash. i then went to XXXX to make money orders worth {$2300.00} to send to the address the person gave to me which was XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ny. and then i went to the post office located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, fl XXXX to mail them the money orders with 1 day priortiy express delivery. XX/XX/XXXX, i received a text message from wells fargo alerting me of my balance being in the negatives. i quickly logged in and saw that my balance was - {$400.00} something. i called and asked them and they told me the check had bounced and told them it was a scam but they said they cant do anything about it. i then deposited that {$1800.00} i had leftover and then the next day my bank balance was approximately {$120.00} since they took all the money to make up for that {$4100.00}. I filed a police report on XX/XX/XXXX at the XXXX police department and also an fbi report using the XXXX form the same day. I went to another wells fargo bank located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, FL XXXX with a friend on XX/XX/XXXX and took a similar check which was sent by the scammer for the " other half '' of the assignment and explained the banker the situation. My friend also pointed out to the banker that when he goes to his banks with his employment checks and tries to cash them out, the bank doesn't give him more than {$100.00} because they have to wait for it to clear. The banker said i am also surprised that the teller cashed this check, she must be new. He also looked at the similar check i brought in and said that i can tell by looking at this that it is fake so that teller must be new and the banker she called for approval must be new too and she's probably in the process of getting fired now. This was that bankers words. He admitted that it was the teller 's fault! and yet they said that i can not get back my money. this is very wrong because i have had wells fargo ever since i was a teenager and my family has been with them ever since they were called XXXX and we've never had a check bounce or any fraud activity so if something happened for the first time, and the banker admits that the teller was not supposed to cash this check AND that he can tell that it's fake, they are supposed to give me my money back. That's STEALING and ILLEGAL. why am i being punished for their teller 's mistake? i didnt know what a fake check looks like, i dont get scammed every day, but wells fargo who cashes thousands of checks everyday, their teller deposited a fake check after she said she's verifying it and still let it go through. this is totally unfair for me. i have a lot of relatives and family with wells fargo and you guys will be losing a lot of customers if you dont fix this

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