Consumer complaint received 2021-01-19
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CO)

In XXXX of XXXX, when I was only XXXX, I applied and was approved for a credit card through Wells Fargo. I was wanting to go to college, but did not qualify for any grants, and so needed decent credit to get the loans and interest rates that I felt I could afford. I'd had several credit cards I'd used well by that time, but all in small amounts, and most of them secured. I applied for an unsecured card through WF, and was approved. 

For 15 consecutive months, I barely used it and faithfully paid my balance in full, until XXXX of XXXX. I used it for gas and groceries, and immediately paid it back every month, maintaining a very low or outright XXXX balance. 

At that time, I had finally been accepted into the college and programs that I wanted, and qualified for the loans I had been aiming to get. I moved away from my parents house, across the state and started going to school. I did not want the temptation of a credit card lying around while being a broke college student attending class, so I intentionally left it at home, in a dresser. I never turned on Auto-pay, and just figured it would deactivate after a few months of non-usage. I was paid up and figured I'd never use it again. Let it quietly collect dust in my drawer and on my credit report for some credit age. 

However, at the time of my departure, my mother had recently passed away and there was some family drama about my mothers will not being honored, and I had taken my aunts side against my immediate familys stance. 

My mothers will stated that most of her furniture was to be given to my aunt, and my family was refusing to give it to her. The ensuing argument was a large factor in my leaving my family home and moving forward with my life. 

As a result, shortly after I moved out, in retaliation to legal overtures made by my aunt, my family sold all of the furniture that my aunt was supposed to receive. 

I was not aware that the dresser in my room was an item in question. As I had removed all my personal belongings, my family assumed it was empty, and never checked the drawers for anything. My WF credit card was still in the drawer. 

It seems that shortly thereafter, whomever purchased the dresser found my card and ran up nearly XXXX dollars in charges. XXXX was the exact number, I believe. As I had moved away and not updated my address and changed my phone number to get my family to stop harassing me I was not aware of the charges for nearly 3 and a half years, when I tried to finance a vehicle for the very first time since becoming an adult, and for the first time in years saw my credit report. 

I was absolutely flabbergasted, and had no idea what had happened. After several hard conversations with my family, and first suspecting my sister and her husband having stolen it in retaliation to me leaving the family behind, I finally discovered what had happened, and they admitted they had sold the dresser without checking it first. 

As I had just gotten a great new job making nearly triple what I had previously made and was for the first time beginning to take an interest in purchasing a home, I was devastated by the revelation and at a complete loss as to what do. 

I immediately tried to contact Wells Fargo to find out if there was anything I could do. I tried to open several fraud investigations, only to find out that they had gone nowhere, and was told that since it had happened so long ago that there was not much that could be done. Despite that, one representative told me that there was a definite and noticeable change in the spending habits that occurred almost overnight. Ironically, several other employees before and after that told me that they could not see my purchase history so long after the account had been closed. After one particularly stress filled call, while I was crying, one of those employees that said they could not see it slipped up and told me they could mail a hard copy to me and that they " were looking at it right now. '' Perhaps it was a moment of pity on their part.

Even worse, several times upon calling in, I was told that no fraud investigation had ever been submitted, nor that any notes had even been placed on my account about the situation. 

With that in mind, I'd go so far as to say that this is a clear case of Negligent Enablement of Identity Fraud. There was no attempt to contact me when my spending habits changed drastically overnight. I may have moved, but I did not change my number for several months after moving away, I received no calls. I got no emails. 

I called and checked on the account multiple times over the next year or so, but didn't think much of it as I was still able to finance a car and work on other portions of my credit. I finally got serious about it this past year, when I seriously began looking at purchasing a home and was told that their reporting 120+ days late every single month might not be destroying my credit score in a traditional sense - but it was making it impossible to get a mortgage because of delinquency requirements. 

After almost a year of repeat phone calls, discussions with the police, debt relief companies and WF employees, I was painted into a corner and realized there was nothing I could do, and as of XXXX XXXX, finally asked if there was a way to settle the debt. WF 's debt department offered me a pay off amount of around XXXX dollars, which was great, but not ideal. Here I was stuck paying XXXX dollars for my own identity theft, and WF was not willing to do anything about it. I paid the amount requested on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 

Moreover, there are 53 consecutive months of Charge-Offs/120+ Days Late marks reported on my credit report now, and I am finding that those delinquencies are still preventing me from being able to obtain the reliability that mortgage lenders like to see. This is the only thing on my credit report preventing me from being able to purchase my first home, and Ive been told that 12 months have to pass with no delinquencies for me to receive a final approval. 

This is horrifying news. I am currently pre-approved for my absolute dream home, and to be told that something I had no knowledge or control over is one of the only things standing in my way absolutely breaks my heart. I have my dream job, Ive repaired my relationship with my family, have an absolutely wonderful fianc, all the animals Ive ever wanted, and am poised to take the final step to having my life completely in order before turning XXXX, but cant because of this situation and I dont know what to do. 

This is one of 2 things preventing me from buying a home, the other a charge-off account from switching banks at the end of last year and completely spacing out about an auto-pay account. That debt was paid almost immediately upon realizing it had been neglected, never sent to collections, and the debtor has worked with me considerably ; removing 10 months of reports from my XXXX  report and is working on removing it from the other 2! 

I have put in several requests to WF 's internal debt review department to see if those delinquencies can be removed, but so far I have not heard back and was rather dishearteningly told by their agents that theres no guarantees but this sometimes does happen and can be fixed. I was told Id have a response within a few days, but it has been nearly a month at the time of this writing and I have heard nothing back. 

I have tried disputing with the Bureaus, I have emailed several high ranking WF executives, I have put in internal disputes with WF, but every time I call in, I am told that they have no knowledge of the situation, and have to begin the process all over again. 

Beyond that, as previously stated, I paid the amount requested on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo submitted another 120 day late statement, to XXXX, further damaging my credit history despite the fact that the account had been settled almost 2 weeks before that date. 

This experience has tarnished my opinion of Wells Fargo forever, which is truly a shame because they were the ones that put me on the road to going to college for the career I now have that I really do love.