Consumer complaint received 2026-03-05 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, my friend from high school ( from XXXX years ago ) had his XXXX account hacked, and the scammer posed as him, saying he was helping his uncle sell items like vehicles and a collection of XXXX XXXX. As my friend had owned a major auto dealership, and also recently finished higher education in theology, plus he is a really nice person, I, along with other friends, totally believed it was him, so I " purchased '' a XXXX XXXX for {$5000.00}, and had the money wired from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to the receiving bank. I am not the only friend who was taken. This is only the second wire I have ever done, one with to my son, and the latter to who I thought was my friend. The representative who processed the wire handed me a receipt, and before she sent the wire, never read to me the fine print at the bottom of the receipt that says wires are usually final. I found out shortly after that my friend had been hacked and this was a scam, so within 6 business hours, I reported it my bank, and the wire fraud department sent out a recall to the receiving bank. I also filed a police report, and filed an online report with IC3.gov. I have checked in regularly with my bank for updates, and nothing was provided to me until today, XX/XX/year>, when my bank manager called me to say the receiving bank rejected the recall, even though it was/is clear that the name on the account was listed as my friend 's name, which did NOT match the account number, so they should have rejected or frozen the funds to refund or investigate. I am not a banker or an attorney, so I thought wires were safe, especially having had it processed through my bank, and until I reported it, was not aware that a bank might not verify that the name on the account matches the account number. The receiving bank will not provide me or my bank with any records as to what actually occurred, which is highly unfair and unethical. They merely said the funds were no longer there, but that means that they deposited them without checking to see if there was a mismatch. The officer with my local police department said he would try to reach out to the police department in the state listed as the address of the recipient. That address when queried online points to a person/s with a high fraud alert, and a VOIP phone number, which may be why the cell number doesn't match. My bank manager said she will email our wire fraud department to see if they will do anything for me, but it is unlikely, and said the police might have to subpoena the bank for records. The bottom line is that this recipient bank is a Wells Fargo branch, and they have been accused and found guilty of issues with creating millions of unauthorized accounts as well as failing to file suspicious activity reports and properly processing wire transfer data, which resulted in a {$7.00} XXXX dollar fine. Therefore, I am sure it can be proven that they deposited my {$5000.00} into an account without verification, so it should be required that I receive restitution. I told my bank I am willing to pay the fee to the recipient bank to repay me.

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