Consumer complaint received 2022-10-01
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (NV)

We opened a junior checking account with my minor son. My son did not have 2 factor authentication on his account set up. Back on XX/XX/XXXX a fraudster hacked into his bank account of which he had a little over {$150.00}. They set up two XXXX  email addresses using his first name and they ended up XXXX  themselves money into their bank accounts thus draining the {$150.00} from my son 's bank account. My son noticed there was a pending transaction and didn't recognize it. So my son and my wife called our bank that night. Our bank is Wells Fargo Bank and explained there is something shady going on and my son didn't do these withdrawals. The two XXXX  transactions were pending at that moment. My wife and son wanted them stopped asap. Wells Fargo said they were working to reverse the transactions right then and they were working to open two claims for both transactions. Wells Fargo also said they could tell the fruadulent transaction were made from a computer. My son, only has used his phone app when doing banking with Wells Fargo so it was obvious and evident to us it could not have been him. The computer expert said to my wife and son that they could tell it was a fraud because it was used from a computer but they'll do the investigation. 

Meanwhile my son was not able to use his account for weeks and weeks and it took a tremendous effort to even get him back to be able to log into his account. They ended up cancelling his old account, setting up a new account, changing his account to two factor authentication and of course hours and hours of hold time and recorded interviews with my son and myself, countless transfers and holds etc... Finally after many hours dealing with this Wells Fargo put the {$150.00} back into my son 's account ( provisionally ). He's waiting for his new debit card still to this day ( they told him 3-5 business days ). He made one XXXX payment and bought one item from a vending machine. Then I get an email yesterday ( XX/XX/XXXX ) saying his account is overdrawn and he has a negative $ XXXX now in his account. I logged into my accounts and noticed they reversed the provisional credit of {$150.00} that they put back into the account. I was very upset with the amount of time I'd been dealing with this so I called in again today and I was on the phone with Wells Fargo for 1 hour 28 minutes, starting my call at XXXX. After many holds and multiple people and another moment I had to get my son on the line the conclusion of the investigation was that my XXXX year old son committed the fraud so that was the reason they took the money out of my son 's account. 

This is absolutely absurd : 1. The amount of time we have invested to get our {$150.00} should be a crime by the bank they should give us compensation for our time. Instead it's the opposite they take our money. 
2. For my XXXX year old son to committ this crime he would have to create multiple bank accounts and mulitple email account and then XXXX  the money to those seperate email accounts which are linked to other bank accounts and then somehow coordinate with other crooks who are in different locations to pull all this off. He doesn't even have an ID so opening up bank accounts took us 1 hour in the branch and I had to be there because he was a minor. Not to mention my XXXX  year has a hard enough time doing the dishes let alone creating a coordinated bank fraud. 
3. My wife and son actually caught the fraudsters in the act ( luckily ) and called our bank immeditialy while these charges were still pending to stop these people stealing from my son. Wells Fargo did not stop them. 

So at this point we basically know that Wells Fargo stole my son 's money from his account because someone down the line either didn't do their job or they did it wrong. I've been a Wells Fargo customer for over 25 years and have 10 accounts with them with no issues or incidences so the first time something happens, this nightmare is what we have to deal with. It's absurd and they did the wrong thing to their own customer and they should be reported. Thank God it was small potatoes on my son 's account and not big money but needless to say a bank that takes from their customer after making us do everything they made us do is so incompetant they can not tell what is a fraud or not, should be reported.