Consumer complaint received 2021-10-08
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: UT
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX I became the victim of a complex and elaborate fraud scheme. 

The details are as follows : At XXXX XXXX  mountain time, I received a Wells Fargo Fraud Alert text message. The message asked me if I had attempted a payment at XXXX # XXXX in the amount of {$100.00} and to respond with YES or NO. I did not authorize this transaction so I answered NO. Within minutes I received a telephone call from an individual. The caller ID said that the call was coming from Wells Fargo Customer Service at XXXX. I verified that this is the actual telephone number of Wells Fargo Customer Service. I asked the individual which of my two Wells Fargo checking accounts the transaction had occurred on and he gave me my COMPLETE and VALID Wells Fargo Checking account number. He told me that a number of wires had been performed on the account and asked me if I had done any wire transfers. I advised him that I hadnt. He told me that he would cancel them but he first needed to verify me by sending me an authorization code. He said that I would need to log in to online banking and enter the code. I signed on to online banking and told him that it didnt ask for the code so he just told me to give it to him. At that point he said he would cancel the wire transfers that had been performed. He said that I would be receiving a separate reference number for each cancelled transfer. I got several reference numbers. He then came back to the phone and said that he had successfully stopped all of the transfers. I had to leave for an appointment so that is where the conversation ended. During my appointment, I became suspicious and contacted Wells Fargo Customer Service. My phone records show that I made this call at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I feel that this contact is more than timely. I was advised that the funds in my deposit accounts had been concentrated to a single account along with the entire amount available on my line of credit. They advised me that {$19000.00} had been transferred by wire transfer to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX At that time I was told that they would attempt to recall the wire and would advise me. About 10 days later I was notified that the wire could not be recalled and that I had lost all of my money. I have discussed this decision with several people at Wells Fargo but have been told that this decision is final. 

I feel that Wells Fargo should never have allowed this wire to be completed. If they had Implemented the proper controls and had exercised proper due diligence, they would have discovered that the transactions performed on my account by the perpetrators were totally out of character for my account. 

This is evidenced by the following. 

In the entire 45+ years that I have been a customer of Wells Fargo and its predecessor banks, I have never performed even a single wire transfer .In the entire history of my accounts I have never done transfers between accounts in the numbers and for the amounts of those made to concentrate my funds as part of this fraud. I have never used my line of credit. In fact, I was notified by Wells Fargo that this product was being discontinued and the account would be closed. Additionally, this account does not appear on my online banking screen. How were the perpetrators able to access it?

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