Consumer complaint received 2021-08-16
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I am a bank signor on my parents checking and savings accounts with Wells Fargo. 

On XXXX my dad was the victim of a remote scam. The fraudsters were able to obtain online banking information. Through a scam, the fraudsters wired out {$2200.00} to themselves. I became aware of this late on XXXX. I immediately called Wells Fargo Customer service to report the fraud. This was at approximately XXXX on XX/XX/21. I do have the name of the customer service representative that I spoke with. The representative and I reviewed the accounts. We were able to see the wire out and two other unauthorized bank transfers from the savings account to the checking account. One for {$2500.00} and one for {$25000.00}. We did not see, any other activity that was unauthorized at this time. The customer service representative supposedly took actions to protect the account at this time. She assured me that she deactivated the online banking capabilities. She also assured me that she deactivated wiring capabilities. She in fact told me that the only way the wire capabilities could be turned back on was if the wire fraud department turned it back on. She then went to file a claim for the fraud. She attempted several times but each time she indicated that the system wasn't letting her. She continued to try but was unsuccessful and told me that I would need to call in or go to the branch in the morning to file a claim. The morning of XXXX, I went to the branch with my parents to file a claim and close out the accounts, and open new accounts. However, much to our surprise, there was a {$15000.00} wire pending for the benefit of the fraudsters. The bank had no answers for how that was possible. We filed a claim and after XXXX XXXX days, the bank denied the claim with no acknowledgement of my contact to customer service on XXXX. I suspect that the customer service representative didn't do her job correctly and the inability to file a claim the night of XXXX allowed the fraudsters to initiate the 2nd wire. My thought is that the {$15000.00} might have already been scheduled when I called in the night of XXXX but wasn't detected. Or the fraudsters scheduled after the accounts were supposedly shut down. In any event, I feel that Wells Fargo is responsible for the {$15000.00} wire that was sent out after they were notified of the fraud. I am now trying to appeal the denial, and have just spent the past 1 1/2 hours being transferred from one department to another. I finally got to the right spot and gave a verbal account of the above information. However, when I asked the representative I was talking to repeat the information I gave her, she did not have all the information I gave her, nor did she have some of the information as I had stated. I really don't have any confidence in this appeal that they took from me.

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