Consumer complaint received 2017-02-01
Product: Bank account or service — Other bank product/service
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

My roommates and I responded to a XXXX ad for an apartment rental lease in our area. The supposed landlord had us send money to him through his " daughter 's '' Wells Fargo bank account. My roommate deposited the money, in cash, at our local Wells Fargo branch. Two days later, the " landlord '' let us know another applicant had come along and unless we sent an additional months rent he would go with the other offer. We ignored warning signs of a possible scam, because we were eager to move out into a bigger apartment that would better accommodate us and because the " landlord '' sent us falsified identification. The landlord was supposed to send us a set of keys and have his " daughter '' come show us around the property. After we had sent the money, we became more and more convinced it was a scam and decided to file a police report. We stayed up the same night, filed the police report around XXXX and visited the Wells Fargo where we had deposited the money once it opened. We were able to get Wells Fargo to place a hold on the bank account our money was deposited into, but they would not return the money because it was deposited as a cash transaction and we did not have a Wells Fargo bank account. The bank manager assured us we would get the money returned after the police had investigated it further. The police have yet to pursue the matter further because the total amount we sent was less than XXXX and because of that, we are insignificant in comparison to some of the other fraud cases they have to investigate. The bank has made no effort to return our money to us and we have been pursuing this since XX/XX/XXXX. When we deposited the money at Wells Fargo, we were given receipts for the deposits. On the receipts it clearly lists the time, date and teller who processed the deposit. We presented these to the bank manager and while he was reassuring, nothing has been done by Wells Fargo 's fraud department, or the local branch to rectify this issue. Another interesting bit is that, my roommate, was present when one of the Wells Fargo associates contacted the holder of the bank account the funds were transferred into. The supposed " daughter '' had a different last name and when asked if she had been expecting cash deposits from XXXX XXXX denied the claim. The " daughter '' ( and the " landlord '' apparently ) are from down in the XXXX bay area in Florida. When asked by the representative the daughter claimed that she was expecting a deposit from some one named " XXXX XXXX '' and when asked by the representative if she would release the funds back to us, claimed she would not. The representative did not press the issue and nothing has been done since. My roommates understand that in comparison to bigger scams, we are a small case. We also understand that the bank would be more likely to help us if we had done an account to account ACH transfer. Unfortunately neither of those apply, but that does not make our loss any less significant. We are attempting to live, and find affordable housing within the city, with a huge deficit in our savings and we would like that money returned to us. If there is anything you can do to help stymy the bank into returning our deposit to us, we would be extremely grateful. 

Just to clarify further, the " landlord '' impersonated the actual landlord who is named XXXX XXXX with the help of his accomplice XXXX XXXX XXXX, who he claimed was his daughter. The bank account the funds were deposited into was under the name of the daughter so I believe that may be her actual name. While the bank did place a hold on the account, it has been months with no resolution. We have attached documents including the receipts from the deposits, the correspondence with the scammers and one of the Wells Fargo representatives. The remainder of the conversations with Wells Fargo were done in person.