Consumer complaint received 2024-01-31
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

On XX/XX/2024 I received what I thought was an automatic text message from my bank saying : Wells Fargo Bank : Did you attempt to send money XXXX for {$1500.00} ( Pending ) Reply YES/NO/HELP. Dont want fraud text Reply REMOVE. I reply with No! I immediately got a phone call from : XXXX. ( This is the Wells Fargo online support # ). A guy named XXXX XXXX. Said he was the manager from the fraud department & someone was trying to use my account. In order to stop them he had to close my account & reverse the funds. He then went on to verify me & had ALL my credentials in front of him. He was reading off my last transactions and asking me if I made these. And going over my information. I asked him repeatedly should I go up to my bank? He said yes he definitely can do that but he would have to let the transactions go through once he hung up so its better to just take care of it now. He then had me write down account reversal numbers Credit reversal numbers, and account return numbers. He then guided me to open up my wire transfer section in my app and had me enter the reversal codes then all of a sudden {$11000.00} was gone, but he reassured me. It was coming right back. Which it did so now I had trust in him and said, thank you. He then said we have one more to do but its the end of the day and its a holiday weekend so XXXX call me back on Tuesday morning. XX/XX/2024. he actually called me on Saturday to check to make sure everything was OK with my end and the banking account as a courtesy, and he reassured that he was gon na call me again on Tuesday to fix the other one. I then checked my emails in my bank account again, and everything seemed fine, except I did get an email saying that my first payment was returned due to wrong account number. Tuesday morning comes around and he calls and we did the same thing as we did with the first one but this time for the amount of. {$9900.00}. He then guaranteed me it would be right back just like the first one and that he would be connecting me with the FBI fraud department if I wanted to press charges and put me on hold and eventually that hung up. I immediately called back the number which was Wells Fargo, and they said they had no notes or knew anything about it. They put a hold on my account and I immediately went to my bank which is a block away. And then ask the bank teller to reverse the funds as it was still pending and after sitting there, watching him type stuff for an hour. He told me that thats for the fraud department to do. I said look, we have the guys name the account number, and the bank it went to. Can we just pick up the phone and call them and told them to hold it no payment? The banker continue to tell me thats what the fraud department will do. I then said that could take days, it will be to late. He said. yah. Sorry nothing I can do but file a claim, and no guarantees on getting my money back. I called every day to check on my claim, and they kept telling me that my claims manager who is assigned to my case will contact me to hear my story. Nobody ever contacted me for nine days I finally get contacted by another guy named XXXX, who my case got pushed off to telling me their decision to, to deny my claim, and that I made this transaction.

I got frauded into believing the guy was Wells Fargo helping me out as he knew all my information as a banker would. I immediately alerted my bank on what happened told him my story and asked them no I beg them to stop payment. Which they did not! I did not authorize these transactions as, I was under the understanding that my account was being recovered. There was no phone call, made or alert for four days between the first transaction and the second transaction of suspicious activity on my account. I got pushed off, pushed to other people to deal with, hung up on three times, and was just told sorry theres nothing we can do. I feel this is unacceptable, and should be covered under their insurance because it falls under being fraud. I know its not much money to them, but this was my life savings, and now my family and XXXX  are suffering. Please help all I want is my money back.