Consumer complaint received 2022-06-22
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/22, I had gone back to work after having been sick with XXXX  for XXXX weeks prior. At the time, I was still dealing with symptoms relative to " XXXX XXXX  '' or " XXXX XXXX '' and are symptoms I'm still currently experiencing to this day ( XX/XX/22 ). Needless to say, I wasn't feeling at all like myself at the time. That day, ( XX/XX/22 ) I received an automated call that asked me to verify my name by pressing " 1 '' if it wasn't me, and " 2 '' if it was. I pressed " 2 '' and the call transferred me to a man claiming to be a Wells Fargo representative who was calling to address fraudulent activity on my account. A lot of the details are listed in my report to the Federal Trade Commission. I will link a copy of that, and I will do my best to explain it a second time here. This individual claimed that there was fraudulent activity on my account and that someone by the name of XXXX was attempting to make a wire transfer on my account for {$19000.00}. At about this same time, I received a text message from a number I did not recognize stating, " Wells Fargo Bank Fraud Alert - Did You Attempt A Transfer For The Amount Of {$19000.00}? Reply YES or No or 1 to STOP Fraud ''. The phone number I received the text from was ( XXXX ) XXXX. The man over the phone mentioned this text and asked if I saw it. I said yes, I did, and he asked if I was the one attempting to make this wire transfer, I said no. He said that the attempt needed to be disputed, and that after following his steps the amount will be returned after 24-hours, my cards and accounts would be cancelled, and I would receive new cards in the mail within 1-2 business days. I thought this was a little weird, because I did not have {$19000.00} between my accounts, nor had I ever. This initial wire transfer failed. I mentioned this and the man stated that the individual was attempting to make another wire transfer of {$11000.00}, and I received another text stating the same thing. He asked me again if this was me, and I said no. He said that the new attempt for {$11000.00} had to be disputed as well. This time he had me transfer the money from my checking account to my savings account stating that this had to be done so the checking account could be closed since it was compromised along with the savings account. ( In my FTC report I stated the amount transferred from my savings to my checking was {$7700.00}, but this is incorrect, and I did not realize this until after I submitted it. The amount was transferred from my checking to my savings in that amount ). He was able to verify the amounts in my checking and savings accounts before this occurred, and all the while this conversation was happening, he was verifying other pieces of information to me such as my name and address. This meant he had visible access to my account and information. During this time, I was feeling weird about the call, so I pulled out my bank card and the number that the man was calling from was the same customer service number as on the back of my bank card ( XXXX ). I also asked for his name and employee ID. He gave me a fake name of XXXX XXXX and a fake employee ID. After this transfer between my accounts occurred, the second wire transfer attempt for the {$11000.00} was unfortunately successful. After this I had mentioned my credit cards and asked if he would cancel those as well, and he said he was able to do that. At this time, he said I should be receiving a text. I did receive this text. It was from the same number that I would normally receive statement alerts for my credit card. The text stated that someone was attempting to make a purchase with my credit card for a large amount at XXXX XXXX. I argued that I wasn't trying to make a purchase and that I was trying to cancel my card, and if he was needing a verifiable amount, to make the amount less. I received another text stating someone was trying to make a purchase at XXXX XXXX for another, slightly smaller, large amount. At around this time I called my credit card company to see if they were seeing this transaction. They said that they did, but that it hadn't gone through yet. I asked the man impersonating the representative to hold while I talk to them, but while I had him on hold, he hung up, and I immediately knew that I was in a bad situation. 

All of this is to say, that at the exact moment that he hung up, I cancelled my credit cards, and immediately called Wells Fargo back. I had to wait on hold for a considerable amount of time ( about 30 minutes ) before I could get in touch with a Wells Fargo representative. Due to the sensitive nature of the situation, when I had spoken to someone, it took me a little bit to explain everything. Once I had, the Wells Fargo customer service representative said he filed a claim, and I asked him to let me speak to a supervisor or someone in fraud to ensure that it was going to be handled urgently. He then said he would transfer me to the fraud department. I again had to wait for another considerable amount of time before someone answered ( about 45 minutes ), to which I then had to frantically explain the situation again. After my explanation, that representative said I had to actually be transferred to another department in order to have a recall case filed. She transferred me, and I had to wait for about another 30 minutes. I explained the situation yet again in as much detail as I could. The lady I spoke with began to file the case after I had given her all the information, but we had been disconnected. So, I immediately called the number back and spoke with someone else, to which I explained the situation yet again. All the while there didn't seem to be a huge sense of urgency, but I understand that they were just trying to do their jobs. During this time, a few hours had passed before I was able to finalize filing the case from the time the fraud had happened. They had said it could be up to 10 days before I received a response, and they gave me a number to check up on the status if I needed to. As I said before, this was an urgent situation, and they couldn't seem to provide me clarification as to whether this was going to be handled in a timely manner. This was under my understanding that due to the gravity of the situation, 10 days was more than enough time for it to get to a point where there was nothing that could be done, whereas if they handled it immediately, there may have been a chance. This was extremely important that I try to do everything in my power to get this back, not only because it was an extremely large sum of money, but because it was everything that I had been saving since I started making money in high school up until that point. The money was going to be used for school and to be able to afford a place to live when my lease at the time inevitably ended. Over the course of me waiting, I called on many different occasions to check up on the status of the case and they were able to provide me with little to no information except that it was being processed. I also went and filed a police report during this time as well. On the XXXX day of waiting, I still did not receive a call back, so I called again to check on the status to which they again did not tell me much. I was at work during this time, and I received a call not long after the end of my initial call, from the individual who was looking at my recall case, and she called to clarify some information stating there was still no response. She called back again shortly after we hung up and said that she actually did have a response. At this point however, I had to wait almost two weeks to be told that there was nothing they could do, and I was out all of my money. I was devastated. For clarification as to why I'm reporting this so late is because I was told that there was nothing that could be done on several different occasions, and I had to find out through other parties that I could even file these reports. I had to figure out someway to be able to support myself for the time being and near future. Fast forward to now, and I've managed to find the time and words to complete these statements, but it doesn't change the fact that this has been a huge effect on me, and will probably continue to be, although I'm trying my absolute best to recover.

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