Consumer complaint received 2023-01-30
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
I have been a business customer of Wells Fargo since XXXX, when I set up my business account XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with the bank, as well a personal checking account in my own name. 

I was stunned to receive a phone call from a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA branch XXXX named XXXX XXXX on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX that a woman named XXXX XXXX was present at the bank at the teller trying to cash an XXXX XXXX, XXXX check for around {$1100.00}. I wrote no such check, and thankfully, the manager and her teller did their job and checked my signature cardthe fraudulent checks signature bore no resemblance to my signature whatsoever. They kept the check, and the woman trying to cash the check fled the bank when the manager said she was calling the police. 

I immediately went straight to my branch in XXXX XXXX, CA, where the assistant/acting manager of the branch XXXX XXXX XXXX who has been professional throughout and who spoke to XXXX XXXX about the fraud that afternoon ) logged on to my account and discovered a collection of fraudulent checks that Wells Fargo had cashed through XX/XX/XXXX. 

In the presence of Wells Fargos assistant manager XXXX XXXX on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, I immediately closed my compromised account with what the bank refers to as a XXXX procedure. My account ending in XXXX was shut down on the spot, within an hour or so of when XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX discovered the fraud. No more fraudulent checks with obviously fraudulent signatures should have been put through my account. None whatsoever. 

In my presence, as well, XXXX XXXX immediately reported all of the fraudulent checks from XXXX XXXX to the fraud department, and we set up a new business account for me with an entirely new account number ending in XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX additionally told me in her presence that she was not able to pull up my account for months earlier in the year and to check to see if any other fraudulent checks had been written against my account. 

I went home, logged onto my previous NOW CLOSED account, and discovered that fraudulent checks had been cashed in XXXX, XXXX, and that XXXX other fraudulent checks had been cashed back in XX/XX/XXXX. I reported these to her immediately on XX/XX/XXXX, believing I was doing the right thing alerting Wells Fargo to earlier fraud. 

The documented fraudulent checks that I and XXXX XXXX reported to Wells Fargo fraud on XX/XX/XXXX are : XX/XX/XXXX ( Closed the account XX/XX/XXXX ) Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$500.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$7500.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$750.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$800.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$500.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$950.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$1500.00} XX/XX/XXXX Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$850.00} XX/XX/XXXX Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$1200.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$1700.00} Yet, while awaiting a response from the Wells Fargo fraud department, on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Wells Fargo put through another fraudulent check # XXXX for {$3500.00} bearing the account number of my closed account ( XXXX ), deducting it from my brand-new business account ending in XXXX. How is this possible, I closed the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account on XX/XX/XXXX? 

Alarmed, I reported this check immediately to XXXX XXXX at my branch and called XXXX XXXX XXXX department. The person I spoke to was baffled that any check, let alone another fraudulent check, could be cashed after a lost stolen was created. The representative said hes only seen that happen once in his career, he had no answers, and he assured me it couldnt happen again. 

Then, XXXX weeks later, on XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo put through another fraudulent check # XXXX for {$9500.00} from my closed account, deducting it from my new account. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? THE PREVIOUS ACCOUNT HAD BEEN CLOSED FOR XXXX WEEKS! 

Shocked, I reported this check for {$9500.00} to both XXXX XXXX bank mangers XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, as well as XXXX XXXX phone fraud line representative, who all said they would look into it, having no answers to why Wells Fargo continued to cash fraudulent checks off of a closed account. 

Then XXXX weeks later on XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo, to add insult to injury, put through another fraudulent check not bearing my signature for {$1100.00}, deducting it from my new account, though, like the {$3500.00} check and the {$9500.00} checks, it was written off fraudulent checks with my old account number from my closed account. I immediately reported this fraudulent check to XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX and the fraud department, as well, receiving the same responseno XXXX had any explanation. 

Here are the documented XXXX, XXXX fraudulent checks that Wells Fargo cashed : Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$3500.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$9500.00} Check # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX {$1100.00} Wells XXXX response XXXX XXXX has been to flat out reject my claim for restitution, through a series of stonewalling, specious letters and emails denying the banks responsibility and liability. 

Since I reported the fraudulent checks to Wells Fargo, I have tried repeatedly to speak to the actual fraud investigator assigned to my claim for restitution for the fraudulent checks. Wells Fargo, from day one, only allows a customer to speak to firewall fraud line intermediaries, who have no authority whatsoever. There should be recordings of each and every of these calls, whereby the intermediaries hear the facts of my claim and are seemingly baffled at the banks refusal to address the specific claims. 

I have a letter from Wells Fargo dated XXXX that states that all of my claim is denied, because a customer needs to let Wells Fargo about unauthorized transaction within 30 days. But all of the fraudulent checks written and cashed throughout XX/XX/XXXX and reported to the bank on XX/XX/XXXX, were reported within 30 days. Why hasnt the total amount these fraudulent checks ( {$12000.00} ) been returned to me, given they were reported within the allowable XXXX timeline? 

Wells Fargo told my bank XXXX XXXX XXXX that regardless of the XXXX fraudulent checks being reported within 30 days, because there were XXXX other fraudulent checks discovered on XX/XX/XXXX written outside of those 30 days, none of the checks would be reimbursed. 

I repeatedly asked XXXX XXXX and the Wells Fargo representatives on the fraud line to provide me with legal disclosures stating this policy ( that I was never given nor signed when I set up my original business account ). No such written policy material stating that Wells Fargo could take the position that cashed fraudulent checks reported within XXXX calendar days of their cashing could be rejected for reimbursement if any fraudulent checks outside of the 30 days were additionally discovered. The bank refuses to present me with evidence of this disclosure. 

Moreover, a couple of times, when talking to the Wells Fargo fraud line intermediaries, I have been told that the actual fraud was reported on XX/XX/XXXX, so the fraudulent checks fall outside of the 30 days in XXXX. Egregious nonsense, the fraudulent checks were reported in my presence to the fraud department by XXXX XXXX and the lost stolen account closing was executed on XX/XX/XXXX. 

More imponderably, Wells Fargo continues to XXXX on reimbursement for the {$14000.00} of fraudulent checks the bank continued to cash AFTER XXXX XXXX and I closed my account ending in XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. For weeks after my account was closed on a XXXX, Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX cavalierly cash fraudulent checks with the closed account number, deducting the amounts from my new account ending in XXXX! 

What is a customer to do in the case of fraud with Wells Fargo? I immediately closed my hacked account, only to have Wells Fargo, for ensuing weeks, continue to cash checks off of a closed account, deducting the check amounts from my new account. My new account was literally an open bank vault, and no one at Wells Fargo had any explanation, nor would they provide XXXX to my bank XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

When a customers credit card is discovered to have fraudulent charges, the card number is deactivated and the card can no longer be used, charges can no longer go through. But at Wells Fargo, it you close an account with urgent notification to the fraud department, Wells Fargo, for weeks, continues to process fraudulent checks off an account that NO LONGER EXISTS, and then passes those losses on to their customers. How can Wells Fargo be allowed to defend and continue this egregious business practice? 

Is Wells Fargo not gravely concerned that the bank has no effective control over the banks cashing of fraudulent checks? 

Why cant Wells Fargo trace the fraudulently cashed checks back to the banks where the checks were cashed? XXXX Wells Fargo intermediary told me it looked like my checks were cashed at Bank XXXX XXXX branches. Anyone depositing checks at those branches would have had to have accounts at those branches. The criminals depositing and cashing the checks have to have names and identities and accounts to deposit and cash out. Why hasnt Wells Fargo recovered the money from the perpetrators, whose identities are easily confirmed by virtue of the perpetrators own bank accounts? 

Why, check after check, does Wells Fargo not check signature cards and signatures for fraud? Why does Wells Fargo blithely pay, say XXXX XXXX  XXXX, {$9500.00} from a customers account without checking signatures? 

None of the signatures on any of the fraudulent checks Wells Fargo cashed from my account look vaguely like my signature on file. This was caught by XXXX XXXX own bank manager and teller in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA on XX/XX/XXXX. Yet no one inside of Wells Fargo bothers to check signatures? Or perhaps there are persons inside of Wells Fargo in on the fraud and facilitating it? 

The final coup de grace from Wells Fargo came in an email to me on XX/XX/XXXX stating the following : You contacted us again on XX/XX/XXXX, to dispute the findings of our XXXX XXXX XXXX Upon receipt of your concerns, the XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX conducted our own investigation. In doing so, we found compelling evidence supporting the decision that we have already communicated to you. There are certain indicators that we look for in the investigation to let us know that there has indeed been fraud on the account. During the investigation, we were not able to find any of those indicators present and denied the claim. We stand by the decision made by our XXXX XXXX XXXX to decline your request for reimbursement of the disputed transactions. 

Really. XXXX XXXX own bank XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX discovered the fraud with a fraudulent check being presented to her on XX/XX/XXXX, but Wells Fargo was not able to find certain indicators that would lead it to believe that there was fraud. 

In studying the fake signatures on all of the fraudulent checks, Wells Fargo was not able to find certain indicators that would lead it to believe that there was fraud? 

Fraudulent signatures clearly bearing no resemblance whatsoever to a customers signature/signature card are not certain indicators? Wells Fargo is standing by its lack of customer safeguards and chooses to ignore its obligation and liability to protect its business account holder customers. 

Im am demanding that Wells Fargo reimburse me for the XXXX, XXXX fraudulent checks that were reported within 30 days on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX for {$12000.00}, as well as the XXXX, XXXX fraudulent checks totaling {$14000.00} that Wells Fargo deducted from my new business account ending in XXXX, despite the fact that the checks were written off my business account ending in XXXX I closed on a Lost-Stolen XX/XX/XXXX with Wells Fargo bank employee/manager XXXX 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 explanation