Wells Fargo fraud class action overview:
- Who: Wells Fargo is being sued by two of its customers.
- Why: The plaintiffs say the bank routinely holds its customers liable when they are defrauded.
- Where: The Wells Fargo fraud class action lawsuit was filed in a Pennsylvania federal court.
A new class action lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo does not reimburse its customers when they are defrauded and suffer unauthorized electronic fund transfers from their accounts.
Plaintiffs Jennifer Rice and Erik Westervelt filed the complaint against Wells Fargo Bank National Association on June 17 in Pennsylvania federal court.
The two Wells Fargo customers say that when thousands of dollars were illegally stolen from their joint accounts with the bank, Wells Fargo repeatedly refused to reimburse them — even though they should not have been liable for the losses under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.
More than $24K taken from plaintiffs’ accounts
The plaintiffs say they have checking and savings accounts with Wells Fargo.
They claim that in December 2023, Westervelt received a call from a person purporting to be from Wells Fargo, who told him they had identified potential fraud on his account. According to Westervelt, the individual described the transaction as a wire transfer for “a large amount of money” having come out of his account.
The person posing as a bank representative informed Westervelt they could stop the wire transfer if he could confirm the six-digit number she was sending him via text message, which he did, Westervelt says.
However, immediately thereafter, a wire transfer in the amount of $24,557.89 was made from Rice and Westervelt’s account to an unknown account with Discover Bank, the lawsuit states.
Realizing that the caller was likely a scammer, Westervelt says he immediately called Wells Fargo, and the representative he spoke with instructed him to go to his local Wells Fargo branch for assistance, he says. He says he went to the bank that day, and an employee from the fraud department confirmed that it had received his dispute and it would respond within ten business days.
Seven days later, he received a letter from Wells Fargo indicating that it would not reimburse any of the funds that were taken from the account because the transaction had been authorized by Westervelt.
Rice and Westervelt appealed the decision. The bank then went back and forth several times, promising to reimburse the funds then telling the plaintiff it had decided not to, before ultimately advising that it would not reimburse the funds.
Bank must reimburse under law, plaintiffs say
Rice and Westervelt say this is illegal because, under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, “a consumer is not liable for any unauthorized electronic fund transfer unless such transfer was made using an accepted card for the account and the issuing institution has provided a means to identify the person using said accepted card.”
As a result, the plaintiffs are looking to represent anyone in the United States who had funds electronically transferred from a Wells Fargo deposit account in the past year who did not authorize such transfer, and who notified the bank of the unauthorized transfer within sixty days, but were not reimbursed.
The plaintiffs are seeking certification of the class action, statutory damages of $1,000 per class member, fees, costs and a jury trial.
Meanwhile, another recently-filed Wells Fargo class action lawsuit alleges the bank aided and abetted a Ponzi scheme resulting in investor losses of more than $300 million.
What do you think of the claims in this Wells Fargo class action lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.
The Wells Fargo fraud class action lawsuit is Jennifer Rice et al., v. Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, Case No. 2:24-cv-02647 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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188 thoughts onWells Fargo class action claims bank does not reimburse customers for fraud
I have been a Wells Fargo customer for years. A couple years ago, I got a statement in the mail for a business account I never opened. I went to complain and found out that an employee has opened several accounts using my name and different addresses so he could meet Wells Fargo requirements for opening accounts. It was a outrageous situation.
They fell for an old, extremely common scam and want the bank to take the fall. They’re going to have a hard time proving their definition of “unauthorized” when the law has precedence.
Let’s be logical here. These scams have been going on for YEARS and got worse when Covid happened. It was posted everywhere on the internet, on the news, social media, etc about these scams. Banks have made it clear that they would lose out on money if they gave in to these scams because you are pretty much authorizing the transaction when you provide the 6 digit code. People have to stay alert. It’s sad, but true.
I was a customer with Wells Fargo for more than 30 years. I had a serious issue with a business that I tried for about a year to get reversed. Nnnnnnope! When they were going to start charging me to keep my accounts at a certain level, I closed both accounts. The “customer service ” is absolutely just pathetic!!
Same here!
I was constantly charged overdraft fees. Some were my fault, some were not. I had a good reason for each one. Sometimes, I would get reimbursed the fee, then other times, I was told I’ve had too many credits charged back to my account so they couldn’t reimburse me. These fees add up, especially when it’s not my fault. I’ve been with them over 30+ years. Since then, I’ve switched Banks.
Wells Fargo is the WORST! My card was locked constantly ..and they always were charging something and never refunding anything !! Everyone I know has complained of this and changed banks!!
What i dont understand is the fact that they are fdic insured like almost all banks in United States correct? Customer’s money is insured up to $250,000.00. This means that any stolen or defrauded $ up to $250,000 is insured so the bank gets reimbursed upon proving the money was stolen or customer defrauded by the FDIC so i have to ask this question, Wells Fargo wtf is the problem with reimbursing peoples money especially when its way below the max amt allowed? As big of a bank that you are it shouldnt be a problem but evidently your to lazy or just to cheap to investigate the claims and just say everything seems to be or look like a legitimate transaction. Well sure it does because whoever is behind this is hacking your system or its actually you, wells fargo, defrauding your own customers!!! This would explain why you dont reimburse your customers because you dont wont to become the center of an investigation that would come back on your institution.
You don’t understand what FDIC is. It’s not for fraud.
Technically no but fdic along with cfpb ftc and occ are all bureaus that consumers are directed to file complaints with when their banks do nothing and or refuse to reimburse them as well as if they have financial institution/debit/checking account issues. All of them even have specific sections for beginning cases for consumer/bank customer complaints. Now as far as the comment u responded to – that’s not quite how it works…at all. Check out google for “what is the fdic for..” have a great day! BTW THERE WILL MORE THAAN LIKELY BE ANOTHER LAWSUIT INVOLVING CREDIT KARMA/SPEND CHECKING ACCOUNT (MVB bank is their sponsor) IF ANYONE HAS HAD THE SAME ISSUE OR SIMILAR WITH THEIR CK CHECKING ACCOUNTS OR MVB ACCTS ID BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO GET UR INFO AND STORY ☺️ [email protected]
My card was stolen from the mail and the person who stole it was able to change the phone # and Gmail on my acct over the phone. And they activated and used my debit card at the bank for $1000 without any problem.
Wells Fargo refused to repay my acct. I was shocked. I
The same thing happened to me they allowed 20,000.00 to be transferred from my account and then decided to close the account down, because they didn’t want to deal with all the fraud claims.
Last year the same thing happen to me I put in claims even went to the bank and spoke to some one. They even told me to go get a police report I done that they still refuse to give me my money back. I was in bed s sleep and was being rob. It’s funny because when I make a purchase I get a notice asking me if I attempt to make this purchase. But when I was being rob not one notification came to my email or phone.
I would like to join this law suit also
I had the exact same situation happen to me for 19,500. My money was transfered out of my account without my authorization. I tried to fight the bank 3 times. They would just send me a letter stating it was my fault and they were not going to refund.
I was told I was a high risk because of fraud. I was told they were closing my account immediately and that I could not get my money for 30 days. Then my money came in a cashiers check and no bank would cash it. It took 10 days and calling Wells Fargo in mission Texas to get it cashed