Consumer complaint received 2022-11-16
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Foreign currency exchange
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I fell victim to a multilayered scam operation orchestrated by XXXX ( https : XXXX ) that offered me fraudulent investment services for a total amount of {$260000.00} USD, {$110000.00} USD and XXXX XXXX ( the total XXXX  value when the facts took place was of {$150000.00} USD ) through different transactions done from my accounts in XXXX XXXX to accounts of Wells Fargo, XXXX XXXX ( 2 payments of {$46.00} USD in total to the account of a client registered as XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and XXXX XXXX  USA ( 1 payment of {$25000.00} USD to the account of a client registered as XXXX XXXX XXXX ) XXXX 

In the case of Wells Fargo, according to the instructions received by my interlocutor, I made two money transactions to the account of a client of Wells Fargo registered as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for a total amount of {$39000.00} USD, ( {$25000.00} + {$14000.00} ). 

In XX/XX/XXXX I denounced these facts to Wells Fargo Bank informing how a customer of that bank was making use of this account for fraudulent activities as a part of a criminal organization, asking them to take measures against these facts and to refund the total amount illegally obtained by their customer. 

I asked Wells Fargo to assume also its own responsibility, since they should have already detected the fraudulent use of this account through robust internal systems that should have implemented the bank to detect and report this kind of suspicious activities according to what laws and financial regulation in developed countries stablishes in order to prevent frauds, criminal activities and money laundering. 

All the payment instructions were always received from the same interlocutor, what demonstrates how all the persons involved in this fraud took part of the same criminal organization. 

Additionally, I send you a screenshot that vinculates all the payments in the same crime squeme, recognizing the same individual having received payments from me for a total amount of {$240000.00} USD. 

Difference between my calculation and his can is due to that I include in the fraud all the fees and costs of the transactions, expensive for international money transfers and even more in case of XXXX payments, and the other part only considers the amount received. 

Wells Fargo indicates in their Response Letter that they cant refund the money from a customers account unless being required from a Courts Order or from the Authorities. 

They also dont accept to have any responsibility for not detecting any criminal activity related to this account. 

Although other banks and exchanges are involved in the process, I have only got a definitive negative from Wells Fargo. All the rest of entities affected are still under the claim process, without having got any definitive response yet. 

About documents included : Please take into account tat the document called XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX is an Excel Sheet composed by different sheets. Each sheet indicates each one of the payments done by different ways, Bank Transfer, XXXX payments through different Exchanges. First sheet is a complete summary of all the payments done. 

If anymore information is required, please dont hesitate to contact me.

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