Consumer complaint received 2023-11-29
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, I fell victim to an online scam by a company that was posing as a legitimate business. They copied the businesses website perfefctly and made the website plural ( by adding an " s '' and looked very legitimate ). 

After submitting my claim and written explanation to Wells Fargo bank, along with evidence provided by the legitimate business that clearly explains that no payments were received by them, and they are fully aware of the scam that is taking place, WF bank sided with the fraudulent business. 

Wells fargo claims with zero supporting evidence to me as their client, that their department called the business line and spoke to someone who then told them that I did not cancel my order in time. This of course, is all very untrue. I filed the claim WF as soon as I realized the scam was occurring and of course no legitimate phone numbers were made available to consumers, but apparently, they knew when a bank was calling ( thats why scammers are experts! ) After decades of banking with WF, the fraud department sided with the fraudulent business. 

Below is the email correspondence submitted as a request to the bank to re-open the claim after the bank firstly denied it. 

" Hello, It has been brought to my attention that my fraudulent case claim has been denied. Claim # XXXX. I would like to reopen this claim with new documentation ( see attached ). 

The attached documentation is correspondence with XXXX admitting that there is ZERO evidence of a purchase being made and their companies ADMITTANCE to a fraudulent site they are aware of. This site, XXXX is no longer available online, however, this was the web address of the site that was set up to look like the XXXX XXXX and XXXX platform. 

I do expect proper action to be taken. Sincerely, XXXX '' Evidence submitted is as follows : " Hello, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, We do not have record of an order for XXXX XXXX and are not in any way affiliated with, XXXXXXXX or any other vendor. There are several fake sites and accounts advertising our product at a very low price. Please be aware, these are a SCAM. We are working to have these reported and removed as quickly as possible. Please help us and the XXXX community by reporting these ads as scams. Please note, we only sell our boards directly through our website, XXXX, our store on XXXX, and our one Retail Store here in XXXX XXXX. If you click on an ad and it brings you to any site other than XXXX, please know that XXXX has NO affiliation with it and this is fraudulent. Please let us know if there is anything additional we can assist with, our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused. 
Thanks for supporting XXXX, please let us know if there is anything further we can help with or any questions we can answer and we will be happy to assist. 

XXXX XXXX '' Total amount {$1700.00} submitted over 14 transactions. The scammers lead you to believe that they bargain is a one time bargain, however, you can make multiple purchases. As a watersports business owner, I was eager to replace equipment like paddle boards, paddles, kayak seats, etc., which is why I chose to purchase so many things. 

Invoice # XXXX {$130.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$120.00} XXXX {$110.00} XXXX {$110.00} XXXX {$140.00} XXXX {$140.00}. 

I tried to attach the invoices from XXXX, but it will no longer allow me to because XXXX was able to determine that it was a scam ( see attached photo ). Also screen shots of my XXXX account that show the payments were made and a few examples of what the email invoice looks like as well.

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