Consumer complaint received 2021-09-21
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On Monday XX/XX/2021, around XXXX XXXX Pacific Time I received a text message from Wells Fargo asking if I had made a charge at a XXXX for {$100.00}. I responded to the text with a NO. It is not unusual for me to get these texts from the bank as I am on a fraud alert system with them. I took my kids to school and was about to call the bank when my caller ID showed WELLS FARGO, so I answered. They were calling in regard to the fraudulent charge at XXXX. The person on the other end had my account details and we discussed the fraudulent charges. The person then asked me to read back an authorization code that they texted me, I read the code back to the person. They then told me that my online banking would be suspended for a day while they investigated this. 10 minuets later, I received an email from Wells Fargo saying that my wire transfer for {$24000.00} was initiated. I called the bank within 10 minuets of this email at XXXX XXXX  to report that this was not initiated by me, and that wire fraud had taken place. The banker sent me to the fraud department and a claim was filed ( I will provide claim numbers at the end ). I was very nervous with the bank and insisted that they get in touch with XXXX XXXX  ( where the wire was sent ) to stop the transfer since it was fraudulent. WF told me that the Fraud claim had been initiated. I then called XXXX XXXX  and was told that WF would be handling everything. I proceeded to call WF another 4 times and received several more claim numbers. 

Our account showed " Pending '' on the wire transfer for about 30 hours. After spending roughly 2 days on the phone with WF claims and fraud departments, we were told that the money was gone, and that our claim was denied. We have continued to talk to WF on a daily basis and they continue to tell us that it is not their problem. We have a text and phone call trail that shows that it IS their problem, and that WF did not get into contact with the receiving bank for 30 HOURS,,,,, I called within 10 minuets in which time the fraud could have been stopped. WF then proceeded to imply that we ourselves were involved in this transfer which is completely bogus. 

We have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and are still getting no answers from WF. They continue to deny our claim and essentially have stolen $ XXXX from us. Please see all claim numbers below for WF Expedited Claim # filed immediately after email regarding wire transfer # XXXX phone contact XXXX Separate wire fraud claim same day filed # XXXX I spoke with 4 separate bankers on the XXXX to stop the wire We continued on this path and were given several more case numbers # XXXX escalation to supervisor phone XXXX Another case manager was given to us # XXXX contact XXXX : XXXX WE also had another fraud person at WF supervisor who told us that WF should have stopped this wire as it was from a new device and IP address in Virginia, we live in California. Her name is XXXX XXXX We then get a message from the dispute resolution department saying : " we have determined that the transaction was performed by someone who had your authorization '' My authorization was a code that was sent to my text/phone by WELLS FARGO XXXX 

This is absolutely criminal

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