Consumer complaint received 2021-10-23
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/21, fraud was committed on my checking and credit card accounts with Wells Fargo. 
{$7200.00} was sent via cash advance from the platinum credit card into the checking account. 
From the checking account, the perpetrator wired the {$7200.00} ( from the credit card ), along with around {$2000.00} ( from my checking ) to another account. A wire transfer fee of {$30.00} was charged to my checking, a {$360.00} cash advance fee & {$61.00} interest charge were charged to my credit card. Theyve since reversed the fees and told me that they have resolved the issue by granting a credit of {$420.00} to the credit balance. Leaving a {$6700.00} credit balance that they want me to be responsible for. My accounts were wiped clean due to wire fraud and the lack of preventative action from Wells Fargo. 

I reported this to WELLS FARGO on the day that this occurred & communicated that I did NOT authorize any of these transactions. Representative filed a claim and assured me that this issue would be investigated & resolved. Also, I was told that the issue would be addressed and my funds restored within 10 business days. I have called regularly to check in on the status but there is still no resolution. 

Despite Wells Fargo having years of transaction records for me, it still failed to identify and protect me from the fraud when it was clear that my bank accounts showed extremely irregular banking activity. 

The fraudster was able to gain access to my online Wells Fargo account by having my login, and proceeded to complete a cash advance from my credit card to checking account, and wire transfer thousands of dollars to a bank unfamiliar to me and to which I do not hold an account with, all without my consent. 

At no time during any of the transactions or before did any Wells Fargo employee or representative take any action to halt the cash advance or wire transfer or protect me from fraudulent activity related to my online account actions. 

Despite the extremely irregular and large transfers in a very short period of time, occurring in my Wells Fargo account and the unauthorized remote logins, Wells Fargo failed to timely act, secure and protect my money. 

Wells Fargo owed a contractual and fiduciary duty to protect my ( the consumer ) funds, due to the company breaching its own Deposit Account Agreement by failing to take proper action to stop the fraud and by failing to immediately recall the wire transfer, which Wells Fargo neither flagged or attempted to stop. 

Wells Fargo committed negligence/voluntary assumption of duty, breach of contract, and violating unfair trade practices and consumer protection law. 

All of the money in my account is gone and the credit card has been maxed out by the scammers. I have been told by Wells Fargo multiple times that I should stay calm and trust that they will address this issue. They have not. Wells Fargo representatives have told me repeatedly that this is clearly fraud- they even told me that theyve noticed the trend of fraud occurring in several of their customers accounts, yet the company is unsure of how to resolve it. I have received letters and responses from Wells Fargo that state the complete opposite of what the representatives have said. Instead of nullifying the fraudulent transactions, Wells Fargo has made efforts to gaslight me in these written responses by stating that they found the transfer was requested through an online banking session using your username and password. As a result, we determined you or someone who had your permission performed the transaction. Representatives and the WF investigators have acknowledged that they have had other consumers where their accounts were able to be accessed by hackers, which allows for fraudulent transactions to occur. WHY would I go through all of this XXXX, frustration, exhaustion and emotional turmoil if I had been the one to take out the money? These actions by Wells Fargo are beyond SHAMEFUL and UNACCEPTABLE. Ive lost trust in Wells Fargo and banks in general. Not only have I been victimized by the scammers/hackers, Wells Fargo has perpetuated their own abuse and negligence by dragging me through this whole ordeal when they are fully aware that what happened to my accounts was a result of FRAUD. Stop trying to gaslight your customers, Wells Fargo! 

I will be getting an attorney and I am contacting the news to bring these concerns to light.

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