Consumer complaint received 2024-08-13 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TN

Complaint narrative:
On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX I signed into my computer to pay bills for the month. My husband and I had just been paid so we knew the balance in our checking account should be $ XXXX. I saw that our account balance was around {$1300.00} and began to review the transactions on my account. There were dozens of transactions neither one of us had made, some to vendors we knew and had accounts with such as XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX, but most to vendors I didnt recognize and that we had done no business with previously. 
I called Wells Fargo on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX, I spoke to the Fraud Dept . for 25 minutes, 51 seconds. I called them again at XXXX and talked with them for 43 minutes, 43 seconds. During these calls I reported the fraud situation, and they turned off my debit card right away. They asked if Id done business with any of the vendors previously and I said that I had bought things with some previously, such as XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX, but certainly not over the weekend since I spent all weekend at the hospital with my daughter, and that most of the vendors were completely unknown to me. 
They opened an investigation with 24 charges identified that I knew were fraudulent, the Wells Claim # on this was XXXX. I asked for provisional credits on those charges so I could pay my mortgage and other bills, they said none would be issued since the total dollar amount fell into a large balance fraud category, but that they would contact the vendors and let me know within 10 business days what they had found. 10 business days is a very long time to be without any of the money that was missing. 
I captured screens of what I saw in my account transactions on XX/XX/XXXX so as to preserve them for reference. 
I called on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX to see what they had found, talked for 9 minutes, 48 seconds. Since then, I have placed 3-4 calls with Wells asking for the status of my fraud case and was told they were within their 10 business day window and would tell me when they knew more. A few of my calls were heated as I insisted that they help me get my money back, the charges were fraudulent and there had to be information they could use to find the thief. XXXX XXXX delivered to an address, XXXX XXXX took information for any purchase, and XXXX delivered {$750.00} of merchandise to someone, so get that information and find out who did this to us. 
A few days after the case was opened I signed onto my Wells account and saw that the transaction listing in the Open Fraud Case was now at 34 transactions, further the additional 10 were all valid transactions. I called Wells again and asked that they remove the 10 transactions that were not part of the original case, and asked why they added them to the fraud case in error. They said I should identify the 10 that should not have been added to the fraud case, which I did. 
I called again on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX and talked with XXXX at the Fraud department for 51 minutes, 34 seconds. I was trying to find out the status of the claim, why 10 transactions had been added to the 24 I opened the case with that should NOT have been added, and why these erroneous mistakes were being made to my account while none of my money was being refunded back into my account. I was told they would look into my complaints about their handling of my Fraud case, I received an email that said the Wells Case # on the review that I asked for was XXXX. I was told I would hear back within 1-2 days, and I never did get a call back. 
My husband spoke to Wells on XXXX at XXXX and was told that the Fraud claim had been closed because the transactions had been verified. He then filed a police report on the theft of our money from Wells on XX/XX/XXXX. The Police Report # is XXXX. The officer said that around the first of the month they see lots of cases like this, and that Wells was particularly bad at responding to customer needs for help. My husband made an appointment with a Wells bank representative to review the status of our investigation on XX/XX/XXXX. He was at a downtown Wells Fargo location from XXXX with a XXXX XXXX XXXX, a customer service representative. The Wells employee called their fraud department to obtain the status of our claim. The Wells employee on the phone that XXXX XXXX and my husband were listening to said that I acknowledged a text from Wells on XX/XX/XXXX ( I did not get this text message ), which my husband explained I never received and have no record of on my phone. Then the person on the phone said No, it was an email we sent on XX/XX/XXXX that she acknowledged ( which I did not receive ) and he said I never received that email either. He showed the employee my screen shots, which included a large number of transactions and reversals after the debit card was cut off the morning of XX/XX/XXXX clearly reflecting that the thieves continued to pelt our account with more attempts to take money as a continuation of their efforts from the weekend. A review was initiated which he was told would take 10 days Wells records their calls so it should have been easy to prove what I stated to the Fraud department each time I called. They told my husband that I should have opened a Fraud Investigation on each individual charge so they werent grouped together and could be dealt with individually. Further, they couldnt do anything further with the listed transactions as the process was already in motion. If someone had advised me to, I would have opened a case on each transaction but I didnt know to ask or do so as a consumer who had never been through this type of event before. 
We received notice from Wells that our investigation was being closed and no further action would be taken by them. 15 transactions are still not reversed by the vendors, and we are missing about {$6000.00}. In addition, one transaction to XXXX XXXX simply vanished from my transaction history, as did another to a vendor called XXXX. The funds were not credited back to my account, they just disappeared from view. 
Wells saw evidence of fraud from my debit card, told me they were all internet-based charges, and left me with a shortfall of approximately {$6000.00} that they made no effort to help me recoup. In fact, I called the largest transaction vendor called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to try and get the transaction invalidated myself and was told they would be happy to do so once they heard from my bank. Since my fraud case was closed and they would not open another on the same transactions, I was unable to move any further with this vendor. 
There was no means for recouping any of the money, they didnt call each vendor and get the charges reversed, and treated me as though I wasnt a 30-year customer of theirs but was a careless annoyance that was caught in the wheels of their murky process who didnt deserve their help. 
For each contact from me related to the fraud case, I am aware that our phone calls were recorded. I dont believe they ever went back to listen to them to find the truth nor did the help me fight what had happened to our bank account and funds. Those transactions should have been guaranteed as part of their customer commitment or by the XXXX logo on my debit card, and instead have all been dismissed as not important or worth investigating. I need help to get Wells Fargo to do what they are supposed to do as a bank. Weve borrowed money from friends and family to pay bills and buy groceries but are still without the funds today.

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