Consumer complaint received 2019-08-25
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Account opened as a result of fraud

Complaint:
In XXXX, Wells Fargo conspired with a property management company that I had hired in the state of Utah, to open two DBA Business Checking Accounts in the name of my business, without my knowledge, or permission, and without any of the federally required supporting documentation, using a fake drivers license number, false identifying information about me, and a photocopy of an unsigned account application, that I still have the original of today. 

At the time that I hired the property management company, they gave me a Wells Fargo Account Authorization and Application that had been pre-populated with my information and pre-signed by the officers of their company. They asked me to sign the application giving them permission to open business bank accounts. Not knowing these people and noticing that the application was misdated, I became uncomfortable with giving them unlimited access to my businesss income, and did not sign the application and I left their offices with it in my hand. ( attachment-1 ) Weeks later, I found out that accounts had been opened, when I unexpectedly received a Wells Fargo ATM card in the mail. 

Fearing fraud, I immediately contacted Wells Fargo and was told that the ATM card was issued for accounts that I had opened in Utah, and that no fraud had occurred. 

I told Wells Fargo that I had not opened any accounts, nor had I signed any bank documents, and that I had not authorized anyone else to open accounts on my behalf. 

Wells Fargo lied to me and told me that I must have signed another account application, because they had my signature on one, as well as everything else that was required to open business accounts, which from XXXX includes : A signed Authorization for Information and Certificate of Authority ; A signed Account Application ; and A Fictitious Name Certificate or Statement. ( attachment-2 ) Operating under their assurance, and the assumption that Wells Fargo was being honest and truthful, I allowed the accounts to remain open until XXXX, when I discovered that the property management company had misappropriated over {$400000.00} from these accounts, and had not maintained my property as contractually obligated to, and I severed our relationship. 

At that time, to prevent any further fraudulent account access, I went into the Wells Fargo branch office where the accounts had been opened, and asked them to close the existing accounts and open replacements. I was informed by the branch manager, that replacement accounts could not be opened, because Wells Fargo did not have any of the Federally required supporting documentation on file for the accounts. No signature card for me, no identification, no proof of a Fictitious Name Certificate or Statement / DBA filing. Nothing. ( see Attachment-2 ) After months of going back and forth with Wells Fargo and getting nowhere, I filed a complaint with the CFPB in XXXX, XXXX. Case # XXXX. 

In their response to the CFPB, Wells Fargo provided false information about a single account that I opened in XXXX, to replace one of the two fraudulent accounts. Although I was very clear in my complaint that there were two fraudulent accounts, and included the account numbers and dates open and active, the CFPB negligently failed to notice the 4 year discrepancy, or that neither of the account numbers listed in my complaint matched the account number provided by Wells Fargo, and my case was closed. ( Attachment-3 ) At that time, I filed a resolution dispute with the CFPB, pointing out that Wells Fargo was lying. ( Attachment-4 ) Rather than continuing the investigation themselves, the CFPB handed my complaint off to the OCC. ( Attachment-5 ) In their first response to the OCC,  Wells Fargo lied again, claiming that their records showed that they had my signature on file on an account application. Like the CFPB, the OCC also allowed Wells Fargo to self police and never bothered to ask them to produce those alleged records, before closing my case. ( Attachment-6 ) I filed another dispute, ( Attachment-7 ) and in their second response to the OCC, Wells Fargo completely omitted the false information they had previously given regarding my signature, and this time claimed that I had provided my drivers license as identification at account opening, yet I wasnt even in the state. Obviously, the OCC was also operating under the assumption that Wells Fargo was being truthful, because they allowed Wells Fargo to self police yet again and never even bothered to ask them to provide copies of those alleged records. ( Attachment-8 ) Wells Fargos response to the CFPB was signed : XXXX XXXX, Senior Correspondence Specialist - Wells Fargo Customer Connection ( see Attachment 3 ), yet their responses to the OCC were signed : XXXX XXXX, Senior Correspondence Specialist. ( see Attachments-6 and 9 ). However, a quick comparison of the signatures on Wells Fargos responses to the CFPB and the OCC will show that XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX are the same person and have the same handwriting. Why would the same Wells Fargo employee need to respond to two different government agencies on the same matter, with different stories, using different names? And coincidentally, they share the same last name with XXXX XXXX, a notorious fraudulent document mill signer once employed by Wells Fargo. 

I repeatedly asked Wells Fargo to produce the documents that they claimed my signature and drivers license number were on, but my requests were always denied. However, once the CFPB and OCC closed my complaints, Wells Fargo finally agreed to give me copies of the account documents that they had on file through the XXXX XXXX, California branch office, and I sat at the branch managers desk as they were faxed to him. ( Attachment-10 ) As expected, none of the account documents had my signature on them, but one set was signed by the officers of the management company. On closer inspection, it became evident that photocopies had been made of the pre-signed account application that the management company had asked me to sign, before it was given to me. ( Attachments-11a, 11b ) or ( Compare Attachments 1 and 10 ) The fact that photocopies were made of the pre-signed account application before it was given to me to sign, further establishes that Wells Fargo conspired with the property management company, who is also a Wells Fargo customer, to open accounts, with or without my permission. 

Additionally, Wells Fargo did not obtain proof of a DBA filing or Business Registration, which is required documentation to open business checking accounts, and confirmation of that fact was provided by the office of the Utah Department of Commerce, Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, in a Certificate of Non-existence dated : XX/XX/XXXX, stating that no business entity with the name on the accounts, was qualified or authorized to transact business in the State of Utah during the entire time the accounts were open. ( Attachment-12 ) To further support the allegations of conspiracy and fraud, in XXXX, I went into the same Wells Fargo branch office where the fraudulent accounts had originated, and attempted to open identical business checking accounts, without providing proof of a DBA filing with the State, with the benefit of a hidden camera recording the encounter. Wells Fargo refused to open the accounts for me, stating that their computer would not even let them proceed further in the account creation process, until I provided proof of a DBA filing. However, that requirement was clearly disregarded by Wells Fargo, when the fraudulent accounts were opened, That video recording can be seen at : https : XXXX. Wells Fargos refusal can be seen at the XXXX mark at : https : XXXX? XXXX. 

I filed another dispute with the CFPB and the OCC. 

In their response to the OCC on XX/XX/XXXX, which they later forwarded to the CFPB on XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo reiterated their lies, again claiming that they had my signature on an Account Authorization and that I had provided my drivers license. They also claimed that the address on the account application was the same address that I still maintained. Both agencies allowed Wells Fargo to self police yet again, without bothering to ask Wells Fargo to provide any evidence to support their claims, and closed my case again. ( Attachment-13 ) Wells Fargo repeatedly and knowingly lied to both the CFPB and the OCC to avoid taking responsibility for this crime. Wells Fargo knew that they did not have my permission to open these accounts and repeatedly lied to conceal that fact. 

Wells Fargo and their employees egregiously violated countless mandates of their own WELLS FARGO TEAM MEMBER CODE OF ETHICS AND BUSINESS CONDUCT on file with the SEC at : https : XXXX Because of Wells Fargos crime , I was left with significant business losses at the hands of the criminals they opened the accounts for, and in an attempt to save my business, while I waited for Wells Fargo to admit its wrongdoing and do the right thing, I stopped making payments on my Wells Fargo home mortgage for several months to help me recover financially. 

Once I had recovered to a point where I could start making my mortgage payments again, Wells Fargo refused to accept any payments from me, until I brought my loan current. 

As a resolution to my CFPB complaint, I had asked that Wells Fargo add the amount I was in arrears onto the end of my loan, where they would have received the interest income on that amount for the life of the loan, but they refused, and instead tried to infer that the reason for my complaint was my mortgage arrears, rather than the opening of fraudulent accounts. ( Attachment-3, page-2 ) While I continued to wait for Wells Fargo to do the right thing, I begged them for a loan modification. The first time, they told me that because I was on unemployment at the time and receiving a {$1100.00} / month benefit, I did not qualify for a modification of my {$1200.00} / month mortgage payment. 

The second modification they offered me, was to allow me 6 months to make up the ( by then {$60000.00} ) arrears on my mortgage, on top of making my regular {$1200.00} / month mortgage payments, for a grand total of {$11000.00} / month, which was impossible for me. 

I had well over $ 1-million equity in my home and business properties, yet Wells Fargo refused to refinance my $ XXXX mortgage, because of derogatory information on my credit report that was there because Wells Fargo refused to accept my monthly mortgage payments. 

As a 20+ year customer of Wells Fargo , I was convinced that they would admit to their mistake and do the right thing. As the world now knows, waiting for Wells Fargo to do the right thing is a fatal mistake. Just as waiting for the CFPB and the OCC to do their jobs as consumer protection advocates, appears to have been a mistake also. 

I filed a fraud claim with Wells Fargo. As part of that process, Wells Fargo asked me to send them a notarized affidavit including any documentation of the alleged fraud. I sent the affidavit to Wells Fargo via registered mail, and received a letter from Wells Fargo denying my claim, dated the day before they told me they had not received my affidavit, which clearly establishes that they never intended to investigate my claim before denying it. ( Attachments 14-15 ) I filed police reports and was told quite literally that, big banks dont do things like that. The CFPB and OCC were obviously under the same impression at the time I filed my complaint. Even my family turned against me, insisting that big banks dont do these kinds of things, yet just a year later, the world found out that Wells Fargo was indeed doing it, and on a massive scale. 

As a result of Wells Fargos crimes, and the egregious failures of both the CFPB and the OCC in conducting even the most basic of investigations, I lost my home to foreclosure and roughly {>= $1,000,000} equity in the property. I also lost my business real estate to foreclosure, along with roughly {$400000.00} equity in that property, while I waited in vain for Wells Fargo to do the right thing, and for the two government agencies tasked with protecting consumers to help me. 

I am now terminally ill. My credit has been irreparably damaged, and for the past 4-years, I have been XXXX, while a seemingly endless list of Wells Fargo crimes and customer fraud of this type have been exposed. Because of their near criminal Arbitration Clause, the customers who were actually harmed have been prevented from having their day in court, while Wells Fargo has repeatedly agreed to pay the government meaningless fines, in exchange for admitting no wrongdoing. 

Combined, the CFPB and the OCC have collected over {$1.00} XXXX in fines from Wells Fargo, while the true victims of their crimes, myself included, have been left out in the cold. To put that into perspective, with $ XXXX in assets, Wells Fargo could easily afford to pay a $ XXXX fine, every month, for 165 years, and still have money left over. 

As compensation for, and in admission of, opening unauthorized accounts, Wells Fargo sent me a check for a whopping {$85.00} as payment for any impact their crime has had on me. Apparently thats the going rate for destroying someones life. ( Attachment-16 )  Yesterday, I received a letter from Wells Fargo, admitting that they had reported my mortgage to credit reporting bureaus as being in foreclosure, when they shouldnt have. Of course, they did not disclose the date that occurred, but I am left wondering if that was the reason why I couldnt qualify to refinance my mortgage. ( Attachment-17 )

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