Consumer complaint received 2022-09-19
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Card opened as result of identity theft or fraud

Complaint:
I'm filing this report because I am a victim of identity theft. I came to the US, to the state California at the end of XXXX of XXXX as an immigrant. On XX/XX/XXXX, my social security which I barely had received was used in the state of Arizona inside of a Wells Fargo Branch to open a fraudulent account for an identity thief. The identity thief used my social security to open multiple accounts with Wells Fargo. They opened a business checking account, a credit card account. I discovered about this issue in XXXX because I never knew that these accounts existed. Since then I've contacted Wells Fargo and informed them that this is an identity theft case and I am not the holder of these accounts. I have never been to Arizona to open such an account and I did explain this to the Wells Fargo representatives over the phone. They told me they will take care of the issue and resolve it. However, I recently started to check again and Wells Fargo have not done anything. The accounts are still reporting. Therefore, I contacted them and informed them of the issue they keep telling me that I am responsible for the accounts. I informed them that these accounts were opened as a result of identity theft in the state of Arizona because I have never been to Arizona. So when I spoke with the representatives of the executive fraud team, I requested the original application that was used in the state of Arizona when opening these accounts. They had difficulties providing the document but they sent it to me and I will attach it in this report. The documents are Record of Application Information and Credit Card Application and Agreement. There is one thing that I did notice is that my signature was forged but not perfectly. I also informed the Wells Fargo executive fraud team supervisor, however, Wells Fargo does not conduct the proper procedures to remove and purge these accounts. I have never associated with Wells Fargo I informed them with that also. As a matter of fact, I never used a credit card in my entire life. Even now I do not use credit cards. They tried to investigate with me when they saw I my credit report that I had bought vehicles. I told them I buy my vehicle cash and leave 5 to 10 percent for payments so I can build a credit. My transactions are cash and nothing more. I only have a checking account with XXXX  XXXX XXXX and that is my only account. Under the Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX of financial crimes enforcement network paragraph ( a ) ( 2 ) ( i ) ( B ) and ( C ) the bank must follow the procedures of verifying the individual before opening any account for a consumer by verifying their name, date of birth, address of residency and check for a valid identification. At XX/XX/XXXX I did not have a valid identification in the State of California yet because I was new to the country and did not know the procedures yet. At that time, I barely had my social security. Wells Fargo opened and became accomplice in an identity theft when they opened the account in Arizona. Plus, Wells Fargo have a history of opening fraudulent accounts under consumer names illegally without their consent and authorization. Wells Fargo have a precedent in gaming practices against them. Whilst I understand that {$1400.00} might not be much however, the account is not mine because I never associated with Wells Fargo. I am not requesting another investigation to be conducted because Wells Fargo is a biased bank the record of application alone can serve as sufficient evidence that I was not the individual that opened the account. Per Wells Fargo 's claim the account was opened in XXXX, AZ at a branch with an individual present. However, I have never been to XXXX, AZ to this day and they can check the public records if I have ever set foot in AZ. To my expertise, this account was either opened by an identity thief that impersonated me or Wells Fargo Credit Card Bankers conducted illegal gaming practices and opened an accounts without my permission by forging signatures and creating falsified checks to protect their investments so their shares are not diluted.

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