Consumer complaint received 2022-09-20
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I have almost {$3000.00} in fraudulent charges on my debit card. I reported this on XX/XX/XXXX. My bank, Wells Fargo, has reimbursed minimal charges. Around XXXX or {$60.00}. The four largest charges total almost {$2000.00} and are obviously not mine. One is to a university, one to XXXX XXXX, one to XXXX university, and the last is a trial for {$160.00} which doesn't even make sense. The bank has sent me letters stating that because the charges were all made with a pin number, I must have made them or given permission for the charges to be made. However, this is not accurate. If you look at these charges in my account the majority of them are actually charges that were not made using a pen. Today I was told that they are not willing to reopen the account and take a look at the charges, I was also told that they don't personally call the merchant to determine whether the charges are fraudulent but they hand over the claim to visa. Wells Fargo consolidated my claims from XXXX charges that I questioned and turned them into one big total lump sum. I don't know what else to do but this has cost me my credit card, my vehicle is still sitting in the shop. I am going to go pick it up however I can not pay to have it fixed because the cost is {$1000.00} that I do not have. I have had to borrow money from my mother for food for me and my XXXX child for the last six weeks because I do not have enough money in my account for all of my bills the way I would if this money had been returned within 10 days like wellsfargo states they will do.. 

And I can't get anybody to help me give me my money back. These charges are so very obviously not mine. I have lived in the same home in Washington state for XXXX years and do not have $ XXXX utility bills in Texas XXXX I have never owned, much less financed, a XXXX vehicle and i have never been able to own a vehicle who payment is $ XXXX. 

I still can't which is why I need wellsfargo to return the money fraudently taken from my account. That protection is one of the only reasons I have stayed with wellsfargo when so many others of my family have left. But I have also only ever financed one vehicle in my life and it is the current XXXX XXXX that I own now. I work for the XXXX XXXX XXXX so I have no reason to be making {$450.00} payments to a university. The XXXX XXXX XXXX will pay for my education for free. In addition, I am almost XXXX XXXX XXXX and do not attend university. I have never known any Internet trial to cost $ XXXX These are the top four charges and they are very very clearly fraudulent. There is no history in my bank account of ever having made any payment to any of these places. And yet Wells Fargo is trying to tell me and has put it in writing that I have made these charges using a pin number or I have given someone permission to do so. I'm at a complete loss and I really need help. I need the money back to pay my bills and to pay for my daughter and take care of her. I need the money back so I can get my car fixed before it falls apart and it's not fixable because I've done even more damage by driving it broken. Wells fargo wouldn't even work with me on my separate credit card payment through them that I was unable to make payment on because wellsfargo will not credit me back the fraudulent charges on my account. 

Instead wellsfargo told me that my late payments for XXXX and XX/XX/2022 were going to hit my credit report unless I closed my wellsfargo credit card and claimed a hardship and was put on a payment plan. So now I don't even have a credit card in case of an emergency with my child with XXXX. My car is in the shop and has been since XX/XX/XXXX. I have to go pick it up but I can't afford the {$1000.00} will take to fix it because wellsfargo won't investigate each transaction I claimed to see that they are fraud... some very very obviously... and I need my money back to fix the car. 

I provided a spreadsheet to wellsfargo. THe complaint department had it. The next level up, the XXXX department, had it. It has been submitted at least XXXX to wellsfargo yet the manager of the XXXX department says she doesn't have it and said she didn't want it when I offered it to her. The manager asked if I has tried to call the merchants myself and acted as though I should have done * Instead she said there was nothing they could do, and that I could call the merchants myself. She then gave me the numbers to almost XXXX different merchants to call myself. Of the few that she could not find any contact number or email or website on, ( pretty big clue this might be a fraud charge ) she said " Oh welll '' when I asked how I was supposed to call merchants about charges I didn't make and therefore didn't know who they were if wellsfargo ALSO did not know who these merchants were. She literally ignored my questions and said there was nothing more wellsfargo could do despite me claiming the my debit card was used for fraud charges and I need help. I am hurting financially. My " cushion '' is gone and we are literally living hand to mouth waiting to make pay some bills because there are others coming up I can not miss or be late on ( like my landlord ) Wellsfargo could not have possibly done and investigation or I would have quite a bit credited to my account instead of trying to get around in my care tha

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