Consumer complaint received 2022-05-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NE
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
I had my saving account compromised over XXXX XXXX. Someone had fraudulently transferred money from my savings account between XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX until I caught it and called Wells Fargo Fraud on XX/XX/XXXX. It was a series of approximately 25 different XXXX transfers ranging in funds from {$890.00} to {$8.00}, with the most common amount being {$99.00} across XXXX different people ( XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ). I had never heard of XXXX, nor even to this day know how to use it to transfer money. I did not receive any fraudulent text communications or links of any kind or emails or clicked on anything to give people access to my account. In total it was almost {$3000.00} taken from my savings account. 

I also don't have my savings account connected to any debit cards, or checks or anything and only have used it in the last 25 years to transfer money from my checking to savings, and savings to checking. I called to submit a fraudulent claim on XX/XX/XXXX after noticing my saving account was lower than I expected while trying to do some online bill pay with my checking account. The operator told me they can see someone has been on my account and they can see it and he couldn't promise anything but said it looked pretty cut and dry and he felt confident I would get my money back. He told me the process of it taking 10 days for their fraud team to do an investigation. He also then helped me to create a new username, password and integrate 2 type verification so that if someone committed online fraud, they wouldn't be able to get the code sent to my phone. He also 'deactivated " XXXX on my account because I don't even know it was part of my account ( never opted into it ) what it is or how to use it. 

I hadn't heard anything and therefore, called WF XXXX  ( XXXX ) for an update because the two weeks had passed. I was told that I would get a letter in the mail in the next 3-5 business days but ultimately my claim was denied because it didn't look like fraudulent activity had occurred. I requested to receive details of the investigation because it is a pretty cut and dry case in my mind. I will get that in the next 30 days. I have also contacted my lawyer. I didn't make XXXX XXXX transfers, I have no idea who the people are that the money was going to and asked if they can tell me about the people receiving the money and where they are located and they said they could not. I did not authorize any of this activity ( again I don't know how XXXX works, or how to use it ). 
I hung up because I was furious. I called back to talk to a higher level and spoke to XXXX who was a Manager and discussed with him for an hour about how this is so obvious and how I want details of their investigation because I didn't even know XXXX was on my account. I wanted to know how long it has been available on my account and XXXX said it's been around for a decade. So I have never used it in 10 years, nor used my savings account for anything but transferring money back and forth between my checking and savings but over a holiday weekend I would start transferring money to people I don't know for increments of {$99.00} at least 5-10 times in the same day and that makes sense? His response was that people sometimes have emergency and tried to sympathize that he understood my frustration. I told him I would be closing my accounts as soon as I can after 25 years in business and that I have consulted with my lawyer and will be back in touch and hung up. 
I haven't closed my account yet because we don't have a location where I live and I can't get to a location until this Friday. I also want to pause closing my account in case there's documentation in there needed by your organization to help get this resolved. I did NOT authorize these transactions and if anyone looked at my history ( which I downloaded as far back as I could ) they would know that the only activity happening in my savings account is transferring back and forth between checking and savings. 
The first gentlemen from WF that I spoke to when making the claim said that the behavior looked like someone was testing the water to see how much they could get out of my savings account because they didn't know how much was in there..and that makes total sense to me based on the number of transactions and consistent {$99.00} and a couple of different random amounts ( {$8.00} on the last transfer and {$890.00} on the 2nd transfer ). Also, if they logged into my online account they could have wiped my checking account dry and my children 's savings accounts dry because all are accessible to me once I log on..so why didn't they touch those? 
Ultimately, all I want back is my money back that I did not authorize through a transfer. Once I get it back I will be closing my accounts with WF after 25 years or more as a customer. The fact that they treat tenured customers so poorly is mind blowing.

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