Consumer complaint received 2022-11-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CT
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
We were involved in a wire fraud scam as part of our home closing. On the week of the closing we received emails from our closing attorney regarding the timing and closing cost transfer details. Unbeknownst to us, the emails were spoof email accounts, and at the same time the closing attorney was communicating with spoofed email accounts for my email account. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX CT was the closing attorneys office that we use. They called the day before to confirmed that we had received those, which we had, but the account number was never verbally confirmed. {$120000.00} was the total closing cost that was sent. 
We wired the funds the morning of the closing based on the information we received. XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, who is our bank, noticed there were some details in the information that did not match, but assured us as long as the account number was correct it would go to the right place. At the closing, it was discovered that the funds were send to a different account and we dug into and learned what had happened. We immediately notified our bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ) as well as Wells Fargo ( Banking institution of the fraudulent account ) of the fraud. They spoke with myself as well as the closing attorney. Both companies told us that there was nothing they could do right awayXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX said they had to wait for the money to get posted, and Wells Fargo told us they couldn't do anything because we were not the account owners. We filled a report with the FBI and waited. 
The next week nothing was being done so we filled another report with the local police department in XXXX, CT. They immediately began the process of getting warrants and contacted the banks an told them to hold the funds. For the next several months we spent hours talking to all locations involved. We learned that the money had been transferred to XXXX XXXX as well, so they became involved also. XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX received some of the funds back form the initial Wells Fargo account. They returned {$2200.00}. Wells Fargo returned {$10000.00} of the entire amount sent to them. XXXX after months of back and forth admitted wrongdoing on their part and refunded us {$55000.00} just last months. This has been amazing, but only brings the total to {$67000.00}. To date we are still missing {$57000.00} of the total that was sent.. 
Wells Fargo and XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX are claiming that there was no fault on their end and have returned what was available. The attorney 's XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX has stated that they do not owe us this money either, although they sent all of our private information and closing cost and details to the fraudulent account in the first place for the scammers to be able to perpetrate this fraud.. The banks have refused to refund us any remaining funds and considered the case closed. We still have an ongoing investigation with the XXXX Police department to track down perpetrators involved. The FBI has not contact once to this day regarding this crime. I have reached out to them asking for any updates and they have said that they are backed up and will get back to me when they can. It has been 7 months since the incident and we still have not been able to recover our stolen money.

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