Consumer complaint received 2022-03-15
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Check cashing service
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I am a victim of a scammer ; I had a job offer on XXXX as a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and that job had a one-week trial that they were going to send me a check and I was going to do some shopping, donation and etc... I have received the check by mail from the company and since I was not very familiar with whether it was a valid check I took it to the bank ( Wells Fargo ) and deposited it in my account and asked the banker when it will be available and their answer was " By tomorrow morning ''. So, I was assured that the check was valid. So, I did all the transactions that they were asked for me to have done on XX/XX/2021 in the amount of {$4900.00}. The next day I deposited another check, not from ATM but I walked inside the bank and deposited it in the account again I asked the same question, and the teller responded the same answer. However, the next day morning I checked my account and notice the bank did put both of the checks on hold. I called and asked what is happening and they told me that they are suspicious that those checks are Fraud. So, I did some research online and noticed that it was a new method that scammers scam people. Therefore, I called the bank again and told them that the transactions that I made were fraudulent and checks are not valid ones. However, the banker opened a claim for me, and she told me to wait for the status for 10 business days. I called them on XX/XX/2021 to check the status but they were so rude, and they told me that " You made all those transactions, you got scammed why did Wells Fargo had to pay for it? '' I explained that I never experienced such a thing before and did not know that those checks are invalid since the bank approves them and made them available in my account. But she still was arguing that why I did not wait for 10 days to make sure. I explained and she hang up on me and when I called again, they did not respond back. I called them the next day and there was a guy this time and he told me that the bank will not take responsibility since those transactions were Authorized by myself and they closed the claim. I called the local police department on XX/XX/2021 and report everything the officer 's name was XXXX XXXX, her contact information are phone : XXXX ext. XXXX Email : XXXX My report # XXXX. She told me to call back the bank and have them reopen my claim. I did call the bank and told them I have a police report and gave them all of the information. However, they told me to wait for the police to investigate. My account still has overdraft, and I am an XXXX student I get my income from the loan that I get from school and have been stressing out a lot for whatever happened. My bills are past due, and I had a problem by paying my XXXX payment bills. And now Wells Fargo wants to send the debt to a collection! I believe this is not fair and I am not 100 % responsible for whatever happened.

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