Consumer complaint received 2023-02-16
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I have been a Wells Fargo customer for over 10 years with ( 3 ) accounts : Business Checking, Personal Checking and a Savings Account. 

This letter is a demand for reimbursement for ( 3 ) fraudulent debits deducted from my business accounts at Wells Fargo Bank. Accounts : ending in XXXX and XXXX. Since Wells Fargo was not able to protect my accounts and continued to give me wrong information on how to protect my accounts which led to continued fraudulent activity and harm to my company. 
( 3 ) fraudulent debits @ {$960.00} each totalling : {$2800.00}. See Claims # 1, 5, and 6 below. 

XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX We spotted a {$960.00} fraudulent ACH debit on our Wells Fargo account XXXX XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX. 
The charge name was XXXX XXXX. I checked my XXXX account, but there were no payments on my XXXX account for that amount. 
I called Wells Fargo fraud dept. and put in a Stop Payment request by Company I.D and Individual I.D . 
claim # XXXX for {$960.00}, ref. XXXX. ( attachment A ) 2. XX/XX/XXXX We spotted another fraudulent debit on my Wells Fargo acct. XXXX for same amount {$960.00}. Again it said ACH to XXXX XXXX ( pending ). We put in another Stop payment request and demanded to know why we werent protected after putting in the first request. We were told it had a different transaction number even though it said XXXX. So I asked to be transfered to someone who could tell me how to protect our account. I was transfered to a representative who told me to put a Hard Hold on the account. He said that would prevent any money from going out until we could Close our account and open a New account. Hard Hold XXXX  XXXX claim # XXXX ref. XXXX ( the bank was able to stop this debit to my account only because we spotted the debit and called to question how it happened again ). ( attachments B, B1, B2 ) 3. XX/XX/XXXX Went to our local Wells Fargo branch and closed our acct. XXXX  XXXX and opened a New Account # XXXX with banker XXXX XXXX XXXX ( we transfered {$1800.00} into new account. ( attachment C ) 4. XX/XX/XXXX We received a letter from Wells Fargo denying our first claim saying we hadnt put in the claim within 24 hours of the fraudulent transaction. It also advised us to call XXXX and gave us their phone number. I Called XXXX and while I was on the phone, they checked our bank routing number and accounts and both debit cards. They said there had not been any transactions from Wells Fargo to XXXX, so someone was fraudulently using the XXXX name for the fraudulent amounts and they only had record of a XXXX charge for {$1.00} which was correct per my records. 
*Note : this letter refers to the wrong claim XXXX  XXXX. That debit was stopped. 
The claim for the XX/XX/XXXX debit is # XXXX. ( attachment C1 ) 5. XX/XX/XXXX Spotted another fraudulent charge for the same amount {$960.00} on our New Account # XXXX. Again it said ACH to XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX We put in another Stop payment and Hard Hold # XXXX claim # XXXX, ref. XXXX ( attachment D1 & D2 ) and demanded to know why we werent protected after closing our account and opening a New Account. So I asked to be transfered to someone who could explain why we were still not protected from fraudulent charges. The representative was XXXX from Customer Advocacy. He told me I was given wrong advice from the other representatives and that a Hard Hold and even closing and reopening our account with a new acct. number was wrong advice and would not protect us fully. 
XXXX. XXXX Spotted another fraudulent charge for the same amount {$960.00} on our New Account XXXX XXXX. Again it said ACH to XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX We put in another Stop payment and Hard Hold # XXXX claim # XXXX, ref. XXXX ( attachment E ) We received another denial of claim dated XX/XX/XXXX which has a wrong claim number. That is the second denial of claim that refers to a wrong claim number. How can anyone be certain of your fraud departments research when they dont even get the claim numbers correct? ( attachment G ). 
We did report this fraudulent debit within 24 hours, yet they denied us probably due to your department researching a wrong claim number. 
7. Went to see our banker, XXXX XXXX. We told him that the investigation team never called us back after promising twice before to call within 2 days. We then closed our business bank account with Wells Fargo, ( attachment F1 ), since neither XXXX nor the Fraud team could tell us a way to protect our account. A lady from the Fraud dept. called later and told us it was all our liability and they will not take responsibility for any ACH transaction reported after 24 hours. 
We then opened a new business account with XXXX Bank  and have not had any difficulties since.

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