Consumer complaint received 2022-11-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
There have been three instances of fraud in my account since XX/XX/2022. The first was noticed on XX/XX/XXXX. I noticed at least {$1200.00} of charges that were levied on my account that I did not make. I asked the bank if I should file a police report, they advised that I didnt and suggested that someone may have used a card skimmer. They recommended that I got a new card, I did and they refunded under 80 % of the charges saying thats the best they could do, knowing far more than that was flagged as fraud. I asked if they could give me more exact location information for the transactions so I could be sure and they said the information on the website was as complete as they had access to. Weeks pass by, I was made to pay for someone elses shopping spree, I kept my account in the positive. I had a stellar record with Wells Fargo and a stellar credit score ( over 650 ) before this took pass. 

Next, Im out of the country, a fraudulent, forged check was deposited into my account. It has a completely different signature than the signature Wells Fargo has on file for me, and the funds were made available in my account, so while I was out of the country ( XX/XX/XXXX ), using my running online balance to manage and track my spending, the fraudulent check was marked NSF and I was charged a fee, and my account was sent into the negative upon my return to the US. On the XXXX of XXXX I went into the negative. At this point, it was clear that their solution for securing my account did not work, so I again suggested filing a police report and the team at Wells Fargo said that they would be able to take care of it. What made matters worse was that their system said that someone deposited the fraudulent account with a teller. Wow. So Wells Fargo has a photo/video record of the guilty party and has not openly shared it with me. I transferred money into the account, and Wells Fargo drew balance from my affiliated Credit Card account under the auspices of Overdraft Protection even though I had opted out of this feature. They said that even though the negative balance was a result of fraud, and I had my credit card removed from overdraft protection, they reserved the right to transfer balances which obviously was news to me as my credit card utilization inched higher. Their recommendation was to close my account, and start a new account. I did that, started a brand new account and everything. This all Happened the XXXX. 

The sad thing is, on XX/XX/XXXX, my account again went into the positive, and Im thinking that I was reimbursed for previous NSF fees, or that I wasnt being held liable for the fraud and assumed this was the benefit of doing business with such a large bank and used my account like normal. Sadly, I was proved incorrect when I found that yet ANOTHER check for {$800.00} was deposited at their location by a teller into my NEW account??? The very next day. I noticed on the XX/XX/XXXX when my account again went {$800.00} into the negative. I was left holding the bag a third time after following the instructions from Wells Fargo staff. This time when I called in to file another complaint, I was recommended to go into the branch to verify my transactions. I was told that Wells Fargo couldnt tell which transactions were true/false and their online system didnt always have locations/phone numbers for me to verify. So I went to the location, explained my situation and I asked if Wells Fargo has my photo and my signature, why they would cash fraudulent/forged checks from someone who is not me? I was told that it was because my PIN was still compromised most likely from XXXX and the best thing to actually do is to put some sort of alert on my account for tellers and to change my pin code instead. At this point, with all of the challenges with my account, in a period of a few months, my utilization rate and history changed my credit score to a XXXX, a score that will take years to address, after being consistent this entire time. 

I asked again if I should go to the police ( at this point, Im pretty sold on it ), and finally received a different answer. That it was my right, and make sure to file a claim for Identity Theft. 

So I went to the police, and the first question they asked Why didnt you come to us in XXXX? After explaining the situation, the police make it clear that my filing isnt for Identity theft because, of course, we dont know that my identity was stolen. What we know is that my signature was forged, several fraudulent checks were deposited, and someone accessed and used my account without my authorization. We dont know if its a Wells Fargo Employee just looking to open a bogus new account, or inflate their numbers, or if its a bad actor who stole someones checks. Wells Fargo could provide location data for logins to my account on different devices they did not. They could have provided the photo/video of the person making the faulty deposit so I can press charges, but they are requiring a subpoena, and they allowed someone to do this twice in a row, one right after a new account was created. 


Wells Fargo Claim Numbers ( for forgery/fraud ) Customer service XXXX, XXXX Claim Numbers XXXX, XXXX Fraud Claim Numbers XXXX, XXXX LAPD Incident Number XXXX

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