Consumer complaint received 2021-09-16
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
As a victim of Wire Fraud between my Wells Fargo account to a different Wells Fargo account, I feel Wells Fargo did not do enough to protect me from the criminals and is protecting the criminals and themselves over me. I also feel Wells Fargo has been showing no interest in the facts about my case or interest in how I am being treated as their customer. The loss of this money will take me years to recover from and I feel I was given a false sense of protection from being robbed while conducting business entirely within the confines of Wells Fargos system. 

Every step along the way from the investigation and 3 complaints filed on my behalf, no one from Wells Fargo has actually reached out to me to hear the details of the fraud, followed up with me on my complaints, or taken steps to address the issues. The overarching problem is that I am repeatedly given the impression that I dont matter. I lost $ XXXX in this wire fraud that they could have recovered or prevented had they acted as quickly or had the safeguards in place as I was asking them to. 

XX/XX/2021 I was in the final week leading up to a house closing when I reached out to my real estate attorney via email inquiring about closing costs and process. 2 days later ( XX/XX/2021 ) I received a reply on that same email thread coming from my attorneys office email account directing me with instructions on how to submit the closing costs via wire transfer. Unknowingly to me, their email had been compromised and the criminals were providing the wire transfer instructions. Thinking it was my attorneys office, I followed their instructions and ended up wiring $ XXXX ( as a daily limit ) from my Wells Fargo online account to another Wells Fargo account. When the criminals replied they had received the money and provided further instructions on sending the balance due to a different account, I was surprised to see different account information. I called my attorneys office and they had no idea what I was talking about and confirmed the emails were fraudulent and I was directed to immediately call the bank. 

XX/XX/2021 Within 4 hours of the transaction I called Wells Fargos online fraud support line and through various transfers and over a period of 1.5 hours I was given a case number for the recall of funds and told the investigation would take between 5 and 10 days. There was no transparency why I was on hold for so long, why it would take so long to investigate, yet the agent I spoke with that night was assuring me everything would be fine. 

XX/XX/2021 The next morning I engaged with the Department of Justice in my district ( agent XXXX XXXX ) and local XXXX MA police ( detective XXXX XXXX ). The agent at the DOJ had a contact at Wells Fargo and reached out on my behalf with the documentation I provided the DOJ agent to Wells Fargo financial crimes investigator ( XXXX XXXX ). That investigator spoke to me via phone to tell me the email documentation has been received and investigation is underway. I should expect someone to reach out with more information and likely will have to fill out an indemnification form so that I won't sue the bank if the reclaimed money is contested by the recipient. 

XX/XX/2021 On the XXXX day I received a courtesy call ( as stated in the voicemail ) that my case has been assigned to XXXX XXXX. Expecting a call from the inspector but not receiving one, I called Wells Fargo on the XXXX day ( XX/XX/2021 ) for a status update and was told the case has been closed the day before with a denial of reclaiming the stolen funds and a letter sent out with the details of the investigation. At no point did the investigator ever reach out to me for any documents or details of the wire fraud circumstances. I asked to speak with the investigator and received a call back from XXXX XXXX 3 days later ( XX/XX/2021 ). 

XX/XX/2021 XXXX XXXX explained to me he had opened and closed the case on the same day, had not been in contact with the financial crimes investigator, XXXX XXXX, nor had he received any documentation or reached out to me for any details. XXXX XXXX would not provide any details on what happened in the investigation, why they didnt reach out to me, why I was on hold for an 1.5 hours when my initial case was created the night I called in, nor had any interest in receiving any more information from me about this case. XXXX XXXX said he would send my request to the Escalation Team and opened a complaint case. But could not provide a case number or provide a timeframe when I should receive a call or expect a response. 

XX/XX/2021 Four days later I received an email from XXXX @ XXXX with a response attached as a PDF restating their position to close the case with no return of funds. The complaint agent listed on the attachment as XXXX XXXX never reached out to me regarding what I was actually complaining about. XXXX XXXX  letter only addressed that the bank will not return my stolen funds. My attempts to reach out to XXXX XXXX via the listed phone number in the email were unsuccessful. 

XX/XX/2021 The next day via postal mail I finally received the initial letter from XXXX XXXX ( 9 days from when the case was closed ) which contained a one line explanation of why the case was closed : as the money will not be returned from the receiving bank, we are not able to reimburse you. Since Wells Fargo is the receiving bank of the funds, they are taking the position of protecting the criminal activity over me. 

In my attempts to reach XXXX XXXX to challenge the findings of the investigation, I have since had to open 2 other complaints. The subsequent complaint closed by XXXX XXXX ( XX/XX/2021 ) had the nearly identical language in the denial of returning the funds nor had XXXX S reached out to me about my complaint. 

At this point I have complaints about the process and the disregard for the factual nature of the investigation, but no one from Wells Fargo has shown any interest in what the content of my complaint is and just responding to whatever the agent decides to enter into the complaint fields. The most recent complaint ( XX/XX/2021 ) that I filed while trying to speak with XXXX XXXX about the case, I was able to get the agent filling out the complaint form to read to me back what the complaint XXXX XXXX closed addressing which also had factually incorrect statements about the circumstances of the case. I was told this third complaint case that I was opening would be responded to within 3 business days and that the agent was including a note not to close the case without speaking with me first. It has been 7 business days and still no response as of XX/XX/2021.

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