Consumer complaint received 2017-06-13
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
At  XXXX  on  XXXX   XXXX  I received an email that was made to look lik e it came from Wells Fargo ,  confirming a trip to  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   that  was booked with m y Wells Fargo cred it card for  XXXX   XXXX  through  XXXX   XXXX . The email had my name, and the la st 4 digi ts of  my Wells Fargo C redit card, links that sent me t o wellsfargo.com, whi ch I later found was routed through a google search to the wellsfargo.com help page, and had a toll free number to call if the charge looked fraudulent.   I called the number, and it was an exact match o f the Wells Fargo call in line. Same automated service, same hold music and I was greeted the same way I am greeted when I typically call Wells Fargo. I was asked for my name, SSN, and then my account user ID. I gave my name and SSN, but when he asked for my user ID, I became suspicious that I was not actually speaking with Wells Fargo so I told him that I did not remember. After questioning me why I did n't remember, he eventually said that he was going to escalate this to his manager. When she came on the line she asked for my name again, and the last 4 digits of my SSN, which I gave. She then said that my account was on hold, told me there had been a large charge recently on my account, and asked if I could tell her any of the recent amounts. I told her I did n't know, because I rarely use the card. She told me the most recent total and airline it was booked with, then asked if I had booked the trip. I told her no, she said she would deny the charge, and asked me if I would like to take my account off hold. I said absolutely not, and said I wanted the card canceled. She said that all  she could do was keep it on hold, so asked if there was anything else she could do for me. I told her no as I realized what information it was that I just gave to someone I knew was a scammer. I asked for her name, and she mumbled out a generic sound. I asked her a couple more times and she finally settled on  XXXX .   
I got off the phone and immediately got my Wells Fargo card and called the number on the back. The Wells Fargo associate I spoke with got into my account and immediately let me kn  ow that there had been  XXXX  charges that were flagged, and proceeded to confirm which charges were mine. He then closed the account, let me know where to send the e-mail s  o Wells Fargo can follow up, and set up a new account for me.
The questions the Wells Fargo associate asked was exactly the same as I got from the scammers, which led me to believe that they were recording my answers, and planned to call Wells Fargo and play my answers in order to get the charges approved.
I have since updated all my passwords, put a 90 day freeze on my credit, and called all the financial institutions I work with to set up 2 part verification.

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