Consumer complaint received 2022-01-29
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:
Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX I received a call from a " so called '' Wells Fargo customer service representative to inform me that they ( Wells Fargo ) had discovered Fraudulent activity on my account. The phone number was the same as the customer service number on the back of my debit card, XXXX. He assured me that this was a pressing issue that needed to be handled immediately. Unfortunately this was a scam call of someone pretending to be a Wells Fargo banker, had access to my information and even had the SAME phone number as WF customer service. 

There had been 2 charges on my statement that were made in Texas that were both over {$250.00}. Another, third charge, for an " attempted wire transfer '' for {$6700.00} attempted. The ( WF caller ) convinced me that " we '' need to open a new checking account to safely transfer my balance to make sure that WF could shut down the account and prevent future fraud activity on it so your money is safe. 

They sent me a one time CODE for the Wire Transfer, I am not sure how they even got my info or the CODE. 

The next day when there was not a new account on my profile and all my money {$6700.00} was gone. I knew then that the man on the line from the day before was the one who scammed me. I felt completely violated. 

I would and will never knowingly approve and initiate a wire transfer to a random bank account that I have never done any business or transfers with in a completely different state. I was under the impression that I was speaking with WELLS FARGO. I had no reason not to believe them based on the number and the amount of information they had. 

I immediately called Wells Fargo that morning ( XX/XX/XXXX ) to see if they could stop the wire transfer since I know most transfers are held for XXXX days for things just like this. The fraud department put me on hold for XXXX hours and said they would open a case and get back to me in 10 days. 

I insisted that time was of great importance so that they could contact the bank where the money was sent before the perpetrator could withdrawal the funds. 

Wells Fargo customer service did not help at all. I went into the branch ( XX/XX/XXXX XXXX ) to talk to the banker and he said there was nothing he could do and I would have to wait the 10 days ( fraud processing protocol ). I knew by the time they got to my case, there would be no way to keep the money from being withdrawn. 

The Wells Fargo customer service was awful. I called 8 times over the course 10 days ( XXXX ) to push my case along and get information. I was on hold for over 8 hours total. They did not want to help me and XXXX banker even told me " Its not our problem you can scammed '' and hung up on me. So now not only had I been scammed and lost my money but the banker is shaming me and won't help. I started to think " was this an inside job? '' It was conveniently pushed under the rug and no one contacted me until XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX PM ( 15 days after the initial incident and 14 days from when I notified them of the problem and freeze the transfer ) when the WF " fraud specialist '' said that I would NOT be getting my {$6700.00} back because they had NO Way to track where it went or who did it.. 

I said " that if your bank institution can't be trusted to protect my money, what's going to keep it from happening again? And if it just keeps happening and Wells Fargo never fixes or finds the issue then that is an uncompetitive system and they should not be allowed to do business at all. '' She said she is " sorry but she can't do anything '' since they already withdraw the funds and I was the one who sent the wire. I told her that contact the bank within 24 hours and they did nothing. It took over 2 weeks to get a call back. 


I still don't understand how they approved this transfer so quickly when I immediately notified the bank within less than 24 hours. I still don't understand how they hacked my account in the first place and could cause transactions in Texas to show up. Lastly. I have no idea how they could send me the codes for the transfer and WF still not know or track that. 

I am not a banker. I trust the bank to keep my money and information safe and they did not. Then after the fact they were disrespectful and shameful. It was the worst experience I've ever had with any bank and once this case is closed I will NEVER do business with WELLS FARGO again. 

Please help me resolve this issue.

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