Consumer complaint received 2024-10-12 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: FL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I received a phone call from someone ( a male ) from wells Fargo fraud department stating that my business XXXX debit card ending with XXXX ( and that number matched my card because I checked the card on my wallet ) was used at XXXX on Texas ( I am in XXXX ) for a purchase on the amount of {$650.00} and another one for {$810.00} at a different XXXX but still in Texas and wanted to know if it was me that made the purchase. 
I told him no, and he said not to worry because they stopped this transactions, I freaked out because this has happened before to me with wells Fargo debit card, and I told the person I will log in and check to make sure that this was real, he said you can't log in to your online banking account because we locked it, but I still checked and I could not log in, so what he said was correct. 
I could not log in to wells Fargo app. 
And after I was told that for security reason a code will be sent to my phone and to read back that code to him, and I did gave that code thinking that was wells Fargo helping me out. 
I was also told that someone was trying to send money via XXXX and in order to stop it, I needed to read another code back to him, me thinking that is wells Fargo helping me and also thinking thankfully it was caught this early gave him that code. 
I was told that {$5000.00} was sent via XXXX to some person named XXXX, and was asked if I recognized that name, that is when I got suspicious, because I didn't even have XXXX on my account and never used XXXX on my business checking account before. 
I hanged up the phone and rushed to the bank to see what was going on. This was all within less than an hour. 
I explained to banker what had happened and that is when I found out that wells Fargo call was all a fraud and someone somehow had entered into my checking account had activated XXXX and had sent {$5000.00} to someone named XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
The banker from the branch after hearing what had happened and confirming that my account was part of a fraudulent activity, apologized for what had happened told me not to worry because I would get the {$5000.00} that was taken back, changed the debit card number and also changed the checking account number and called the fraud department to open a claim. 
The fraud department after hearing what had happened, apologized and said the investigation was open and I would have an answer in 10 business days. 
I received a letter from the claim department ( claim # XXXX ) saying that they had finished investigating the fraud claim and the research showed the unauthorized activity was made through a secure online banking session by me or someone who had my authority, so they determined the activity was authorized and closed the claim. 
Basically saying that I lost {$5000.00}. 
Extremely upset with the letter on my hand I rushed to the bank and spoke to the same banker again that helped me open the claim, the banker was very surprised with the claim denial letter and notified the branch manager. The branch manager was also surprised with the claim department decision and called ( from the branch ) their claim department again to reopen the claim.

After talking to the claim department and explaining to them again exactly what had happened on the day of the fraud they said it was nothing they could do because the transaction was authorized by a device recognized by their system which apparently was my phone, so the investigation was closed and the decision was made. 
I told the person on the phone from the claim department and to the branch manager that it all started because they knew my debit card number and because I could not log in to my account that got me.

I also expressed that most people would fall for this type of scam and I asked the questions on how could they know my debit card number and how I could not log in to my account, and how did they breach their security system to do that!! 
The answers I constantly received was " THEY DON'T KNOW '' and they were sorry. Sorry that they could not give me back the {$5000.00} that was taken and they would not take any responsibility for it, they did not care nor put in consideration that I have been banking with Wels Fargo for many many years.

The only thing they said that could be done was to escalate the claim to their executive team and see if they could do something about it. 
I had no choice but to wait for their call. 
Several days went by and I received a phone call from one of their managers, after hearing from me again and again what had happened the answer was decision from the fraud claim department remains the same and the claim was permanently closed, they were sorry but they could not do anything else.

Many questions I asked remained unanswered How did they know my visa card number!! How did they lock the account and changed the password!! How did they activate XXXX! and how did the bank authorized such a high number of {$5000.00} for a one time transaction.

All the answers I received were " Sorry '' and " We don't know '' Wells Fargo bank should know, and they need to give back the {$5000.00} that was stolen from me because their security system was breached and broken, wells Fargo is responsible for anyone entering at their clients accounts and obtaining debit card numbers and being able to change account passwords and send unauthorized funds.

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