Consumer complaint received 2022-10-27
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
It all started when I met a girl ( her name is XXXX, supposedly from XXXX, lives in USA in XXXX Oregon ), she started flirting with me and XXXX XXXX XXXX After a while, she told me about investing and cryptocurrency and trading profits. XXXX interested me and invited me to trade with her. 
On XX/XX/2022 at first I started with {$100.00} and then she asked me to invest more, putting pressure on me and I agreed. 
On XX/XX/2022, I invested {$1000.00} XXXX with commissions and the purchase transaction was about {$1200.00} XXXX. 
I started making a profit on a small investment. 
I liked the idea of profit, the lady asked to take a loan to get more money to invest. But I told her I had some savings and on XX/XX/2022, I put down {$710.00} to add more funds. 
I wanted to have at least {$2000.00} in my account, so I added {$250.00}. 
On XX/XX/2022, I deposited XXXX XXXX, which cost me {$5100.00}. Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I deposited XXXX XXXX for about {$2100.00}. My friend insisted that I put in more money to have a decent amount as capital, so I bought XXXX, which is the equivalent of {$9200.00}. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I bought another XXXX, so my XXXX  account grew nicely. 
I continued to buy more, on XX/XX/2022, I bought XXXX equivalent to {$5000.00}, and sent it to XXXX XXXX, all purchases, and deposits were from my debit card from Wells Fargo to XXXX XXXX XXXX 
The problems started when I tried to withdraw funds from the XXXX XXXX, they asked for 15 % taxes on my assets, which were approximately XXXX XXXX equal to the XXXX XXXX I sent on XX/XX/2022. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX win asked for 10 % of my XXXX  for verification, threatening to freeze my account if I didn't send the money. So I sent them XXXX XXXX = XXXX USD, apparently, the verification failed because of my ID. After waiting to " verify '' my account, they sent me a message saying that my account was under investigation because of my income, and that in order to verify it and get it back to normal and as proof of my innocence I needed to send XXXX. This happened on XX/XX/XXXX, I was chatting with my friend and she told me that I should do what they were asking, So I used all my savings and retirement money to send them XXXX. I sent them XXXX about {$20000.00} XXXX dollars, to my surprise they told me that since I had sent an incomplete payment I needed to send them another XXXX to complete the check, which I did the same day. The next day I was waiting for a message from them, and they sent me an email saying that the XXXX headquarters did not accept the verification because I had sent them XXXX in installments. 
They offered to do the final verification by sending XXXX in one payment. I contacted my friend and she told me that I had to send the money or my account would be blocked. I sent the money by wire transfer on XX/XX/2022, because that was the only way I could do it. 
After trying to withdraw my money several times with no success, I understood that I made the mistake and I fell victim to a scam. 
After the incident, I tried to contact Wells Fargo and draw their attention to the fact that the transactions made from my bank account should have been regarded by the bank as suspicious and similar to fraud. The task of the bank in such cases is not only to store my funds but also to protect them. But my requests were rejected

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