Consumer complaint received 2022-12-02
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:
Dear Sir /Madam My name is XXXX XXXX I fell victim to a scam company XXXX to which I invested money. I lost a total of XXXX XXXX At first, I was glad that the response came quickly, but now I realized that nothing amongst my requests were granted nor were any actions taken. It seems that my report was not properly taken into consideration. I report this to you as a XXXX XXXX of my bank Wells Fargo to look into the fact that my report to my bank was responded to with NO. The main reason for the existence of the Ombudsman is to resolve disputes between clients and their financial institution. 
So, let me tell you how this sad situation happened to me : It all started when I met a girl ( her name is XXXX, supposedly from XXXX, lives in XXXX in XXXX XXXX ), she started flirting with me and rubbing my confidence. 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 to XXXX wallet, all purchases and deposits were from my debit card from Wells Fargo to XXXX to XXXX  The problems started when I tried to withdraw funds from the XXXX platform, 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, XXXXXXXX XXXX asked for 10 % of my capital for verification, threatening to freeze my account if I didn't send the money. So I sent them XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, 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, 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 XXXX 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 that I fell victim to a scam. 
So, I tried to solve this problem by myself with my bank. I asked them in official letters where I claimed my money back since they failed to protect me and they violated their own terms and conditions about the customer protection against money laundering andfraud. 
I want to point your attention to your own Fraud Defenses that can be found by thelink : https : //www.wellsfargo.com/com/fraud/fraud-defenses/

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