Consumer complaint received 2022-02-23
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MN
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I was contacted by Wells Fargo Bank on XX/XX/2022 to alert me that a suspicious transaction ( setting up XXXX XXXX ) had taken place on my business checking account ending in XXXX. I verified that it was not me and WF said they would send out a replacement card. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a text from " Wells Fargo '' asking if I had authorized a payment to XXXX in South Carolina. I responded " no ''. Another text arrived asking if I had authorized two XXXX payments and I responded 'no '. You will see in my screen shots attached that I responded " no '' instead of " 2 ''. I was panicking because it was such a shock. 

I was immediately contacted on my cell phone by " Wells Fargo '' and said there had been another transaction ( setting up XXXX XXXX ) on the same account. I was confused since this had just happened the day before but continued the conversation. I explained about being contacted the previous day and she said that a new card hadn't been sent, but a new one would be today. I was then asked about the attempt to charge at a XXXX in South Carolina and replied no, I had not done that. Then, I was asked if I made two XXXX deposits- one for {$1000.00} and one for {$2000.00} to XXXX XXXX. Of course, I hadn't made those either. I was then prompted to reverse the transfer using my mobile XXXX app. A text was sent with a pin number I was to give them for verification. I was given confirmation numbers for both XXXX transfers and a XXXX tracking number for the new card being sent. 

As soon as I hung up, I received a text from Wells Fargo regarding the {$1000.00} XXXX transfer and I was alerted to call their fraud department. I was on hold for 1 hour and 11 minutes. When I finally spoke with a representative, she told me that I had been scammed. Before I could get any more information, the call was disconnected. I called back and was transferred to a number of different departments. I was on the phone for 1 hour and 49 minutes. Finally, a representative was able to help stop the {$1000.00} transfer, the {$2000.00} transfer had already gone through. I couldn't help but think that the extraordinary wait time to speak to an agent contributed to not being able to also stop the {$2000.00} transfer. 
The agent told me a case had been opened and that it would be 7-10 business days for a resolution. 

After 10 days, I called Wells Fargo and was told they were closing the claim and could not do anything. According to Wells Fargo and XXXX, because I " authorized '' this transfer, I was liable. When I asked if there was anything I could do or if they could offer any suggestions, they said, " NO ''. I could not believe that their response was that they weren't authorized to provide any suggestions. 

I then filed a claim with my local police department on XX/XX/2022. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Wells Fargo requesting the documentation they used for my case. 

I did more digging and became aware of the Federal Reserve Board 's Regulation E. I believe that my case is covered by this regulation. Question # 5 of the FAQs. If a consumer is fraudulently induced into sharing account access information with a third party, and a third party uses that information to make an EFT from the consumers account, the transfer is an unauthorized EFT under Regulation E In the meantime, I had contacted the XXXX XXXX to report the incident and to shed light on this new, sophisticated scam. I was contacted by a reporter and the story ran on XX/XX/XXXX.

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