Complaint Review: Wells Fargo - San Francisco California

Striderq- 

You are right...I shouldn't have let the bank pressure me into additional accounts that I didn't want....but that doesn't excuse what has happened to me.

It was in fact a Debit/ATM card.

I have possession of the cards and never activated them.

Also, someone accessed and changed the contact info (phone number) on my account which should have been impossible because it was a new account and I had them create a special password in order to access the account by phone or in person....so it's starting to feel like an inside job or bank hack.

Robert-

The fraud took place within 30 days and I froze the account as soon as I foudn out.

I did file a police report and also recently contacted the Secret Service.  They apparently investigate this type of fraud.

Elia-

I've been in touch with a laywer and the offered to represent me.

Going to use this as last option as I'm still hoping the bank will come around but if not then perhaps a class action suit if there are other people out there that have similar experiences.

The detective at the LAPD Financial Crimes department told me in all her experience that Wells Fagro is the WORST at taking care of customers and protecting them.

My wife had $3400 stolen via ATM and an additional $800 stolen (more than the ATM limit) by a withdrawal from the branch using and AUTOMATED TELLER!! 

We received exactly the same letter, which must be a form letter that they routinely send out to deny all these claims.

Think about this.  They state that the withdrawals were made by us or someone with our permission because the person used our PIN number.  The ATM card cannot be used at an ATM machine without the PIN number.  So  !! ANY !! fraudulent use of an ATM card is, by their definition, not fraudulent and they will deny the claim.

Is a class action lawsuit possible??  Anyone want to get on board this?  I am going to look for a C.A. lawyer and find out.

There's more going on than the OP mentioned An "ATM card" can NOT be used to make store purchases. It can only be used at ATMs. So either the OP is calling a debit card an ATM card or something else happened. One possible reason the investigator may have made the decision they did is if the purchases were made with the PIN used. Banks advise you to have a PIN that isn't easy to figure out and to protect your PIN. So if the purchase was made with the PIN the bank is more likely to look at it as the card holder made the purchase or was at fault for not protecting the PIN.

Why would the number of uses of a card be a red flag for the bank to assume fraud? The card is given you to use to make purchases and get money. Are you willing to accept a limit of say 15 transactions a month and after that have the bank deny all use of your card?

It's amazing the number of people posting here on ROR that can't seem to tell a bank "NO". If all you wanted was a savings account why did you accept anything else??

There is one group in your list that you failed to include. The police. You need to report this theft as you claim. You don't say how much was taken but over 64 transactions the police should be able to get at least a few surveillance videos pulled. It may not get your money back but you may get some justice by being able to catch the person.

Other things you failed to mention is how long it took you to discover this. You only have a limited time(60 days) to dispute a transaction. Also when you got the ATM card what did you do with them? Are they still in your possession?

Other things against you may be where these transactions are. If they are all near you it's going to be harder to claim you didn't know the person.

Then there is something you are not going to like. It is not the banks responsibility to determine if a transaction is fraudulent. Now yes they may detect one that is and stop it. But if they don't it is not necessarily their fault. This is why it is important to monitor your account.

Good luck