Consumer complaint received 2025-02-10 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
To begin, I want to note that although I am the victim of an obvious online banking Fraud by an individual criminal or group of them, and will recount the scam in great detail, my complaint to the CFPB is mainly against Wells Fargo and their lies, false promises, rushed and careless lack of attention to detail that led them to deny my claim without contacting me for any information, then both refusing to inform me that they had denied my claim and refusing to restore my access to online banking, which I have been unable to access or view transactions through for over a month now. 

On Thursday, XX/XX/year> at around XXXXXXXX XXXX CST, I was defrauded of {$360.00} through XXXX from my Everyday Checking Account ( Account Number XXXX ) through my Wells Fargo Banking Application on my XXXX XXXX without my knowledge through the XXXX online payment interface system within my Wells Fargo app while someone else had access to my phone, which he acquired through false pretenses and deceit. Not realizing at the time that the money had been stolen/defrauded, it was only upon checking my banking statement through the XXXX app late at night eight days letter that I noticed the transfer. I called Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX CST the next day on XX/XX/XXXX, and was put on hold for about ten minutes before a very rushed-feeling five-minute call with a man with an XXXX accent. He took down very few details, made several mistakes when writing them down, and ignored other aspects of the incident entirely, and, seemingly in a rush to get off the call as soon as possible, promised that someone actually from the fraud department would get in touch and call me to gather further important details within the next two or three days. That never happened. Instead, the case was denied ( without any explanation or notification of this to me ) based on his faulty information and the customer service representatives broken promise that someone within the fraud department would call me soon to get the full details. 

Here are the specific details of the incident that led to the fraud and/or theft of my {$360.00} from my bank account by a criminal holding my phone while taking advantage of our proximity to abuse the XXXX 's FaceID feature : A XXXX user by the name of XXXX XXXX responded XXXX a XXXX XXXX ad selling my XXXX XXXX and a handful of game discs. He said he was interested and told me to text the number XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX, so I did and since he seemed amenable to my price I gave him the address to meet at, a well-lit parking lot in my apartment complex. 

About half an hour later, he arrived at the parking lot to my apartment complex, and got in my car in the passengers seat. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood down and appeared to be a XXXX young man who was shorter than me and shorter than XXXX feet, neither XXXX nor XXXX, with a small XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX  on his XXXX  area of his XXXX. He said hello. I showed him the XXXX and he said lets trade XXXX information and find each other so I can pay. He handed me his phone, an XXXX  of some sort, took my phone which was open so he could browse XXXX, and tried to find each other. He claimed not to be able to find me so I waited and smoked a cigarette, chatting with him a bit, just some looking at each other and trading jokes. Although I was not conscious of this at the time, he at some point switched to my Wells Fargo banking app, opened it using Face ID by subtly pointing the front camera towards my face without me noticing, and sent {$360.00} to an account under the name XXXX XXXX XXXX using XXXX, then deleted the message that usually get sent notifying me of the transfer. He then told me he couldnt find me, and I was having trouble finding the XXXX account he described too. We traded phones and he told me he would just go to an ATM and pay me in cash, then exited my vehicle, leaving me to wait and assume he'd be right back. He never returned and I checked my XXXX, but no money had been sent so I felt safe. Days later, I noticed the transfer in my online banking statement, made a note that the recipient 's email account was listed as XXXX and that the confirmation code was XXXX, then contacted my bank when they re-opened the next day and reported the fraud/theft. I am unsure if either XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX are his real name. The next time I checked his XXXX account it had been deleted and he seemed to have blocked my phone number. 

Although I have banked, both Checkings and Savings, exclusively through Wells Fargo for 22 years, this entire ordeal has revealed to me that I am just a number on a screen to them and not a human being, much less a valued customer, and I should have heeded the multiple scandals, criminal charges, and class action lawsuits revealing how Wells Fargo will go to great and immoral lengths to hold on to every XXXX  and XXXX they can, even if it means proving every word they say to you and write online and in promotionals to be a lie. Here 's some quick excerpts from the fraud sections of their website : According to Wells Fargo, their " Banking Accounts, Credit Cards, and Debit Cards come with " Wells Fargo Debit and Credit Cards come with Zero Liability protection at no extra cost. You wont be held responsible for unauthorized card transactions. '' Clearly their " no liability '' and " you won't be held responsible '' for unauthorized policies do not apply to me. Here 's another : " We help keep your money safe by monitoring your accounts and may contact you if we detect unusual activity. If it's not your purchase, we will help you resolve it. We use various methods to contact our customers including email, text, push notification from the mobile app, or phone call. " Once again, no one from Wells Fargo ever contacted me about this fraud claim. The first customer service employee promised the fraud department would reach out in 2-3 days, maximum. They didn't reach out to me at all or do anything to gather more details. They wrote down that this was an online purchase that I willingly made alone on my own phone, never bothered to even inform me that my claim was denied after weeks of waiting. 

When I finally got to communicate with a fraud department senior team lead, he said they would call back to tell me the outcome of my appeal/dispute to their claim decision within 48 hours. I faxed them XXXX dispute documentation, my approved police report, text screenshots, etc. 48 hours came and went. I sent that fax and watched it go through on Wednesday. It is now Monday. 

Bottom line, no one should be able to lie and treat their customers like this, much less a bank you've trusted for decades. 

I'm not the only one to see this pattern of denying rightful and earnest claims that in many cases they are legally required to reimburse the customer for in order to maximize that quarter 's shareholder profit, either. Please see below for a tiny sampling of other Wells Fargo customers ' experience trying to get simple claims addressed or refunded : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX The Short Version? I want my money back. And don't bank at Wells Fargo unless you like being gaslit, ignored, robbed, and overall treated like dirt by a mega-corporation that values profits over morality and any type of customer satisfaction.

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