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Wells Fargo Fraud Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Mary Linda Livingston lodged a lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Company.
- Why: Livingston alleges Wells Fargo allowed her to transfer hundreds of thousands to a con artist before alerting her to the fraud.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia county court.
Wells Fargo failed to protect an elderly long-time customer from sending approximately $450,000 to criminals in a fraud scheme, a new lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Mary Linda Livingston claims Wells Fargo looked on as she made several transfers amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars before telling her the deals were likely a scam. Now, she says Wells Fargo will not reimburse her for the money she wired to fraudsters. She accuses the bank of failing to protect her funds and detect and prevent financial crimes.
Wells Fargo Customer Loses Life Savings to Fraud
Livingston says the Wells Fargo fraud began after she responded to an email from someone purporting to be from Microsoft, which set off a series of events that ended in her wire-transferring $450,000 to the Bank of Bangkok in nine separate transactions of $50,000 increments.
“Despite Wells Fargo having years of transaction records for Ms. Livingston, it still failed to identify and protect her from the fraud when it was clear that her bank accounts showed extremely irregular banking activity,” states the lawsuit.
The fraudster was able to gain access to Livingston’s online Wells Fargo account by having her login, and proceeded to change her password, attempt a Zelle money-transfer, and transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from her savings account to her checking account, all without her consent, according to the lawsuit.
Livingston claims the fraudster tricked her into believing her Wells Fargo checking account contained funds that belonged to Microsoft and threatened to hold her account ransom unless she wired the funds back to the company.
Under duress, the plaintiff made five different $50,000 transactions to the Bank of Bangkok, per the fraudsters instruction, at two separate Wells Fargo locations in a “very short period of time,” says the lawsuit.
Livingston claims at no time during any of the five transactions or before did any Wells Fargo employee or representative take any action to halt the wire transfers or protect her from fraudulent activity related to her online account actions. Indeed, it wasn’t until Livingston tried to make a sixth transfer that a Wells Fargo employee finally alerted her to the fraud.
“Despite the extremely irregular transfers in a very short period of time, occurring in Ms. Livingston’s Wells Fargo account and the unauthorized remote logins, Wells Fargo failed to timely act, secure and protect Ms. Livingston’s money,” states the lawsuit.
The company then advised the plaintiff they would place a hold on her final wire transfer, but waited several days before attempting to call back the previous wire transfers to the Bank of Bangkok, according to the lawsuit.
Wells Fargo owed a contractual and fiduciary duty to protect the plaintiffs funds, according to the lawsuit, which says the company breached its own Deposit Account Agreement by failing to take proper action to stop the fraud and by failing to immediately recall the wire transfers after it finally informed the plaintiff about it.
Livingston said that, in addition to losing hundreds of thousands of dollars — most of her life savings — she has suffered from emotional damages including stress, anxiety, and loss of sleep.
She accuses Wells Fargo of negligence/voluntary assumption of duty, breach of contract, and violating the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
Plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and seeking an amount well-in-excess of $50,000 that will fully compensate her for her losses to the Wells Fargo fraud.
Wells Fargo was in the news earlier this month after the company agreed to a $28 million class action settlement with consumers who alleged telemarketers working on the company’s behalf recorded phone calls without consent.
Do you believe Wells Fargo is liable for failing to protect Ms. Livingston from fraud? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Gavin P. Lentz, Esquire, Vincent van Laar, Esquire, and Matthew L. Minsky, Esquire of Bochetto & Lentz, P.C.
The Wells Fargo Fraud Lawsuit is Livingston v. Wells Fargo & Company, Case No. 2:21-cv-03866, in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
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17 thoughts onWells Fargo Looked On As Elderly Customer Lost $450,000 To Fraud, Says Lawsuit
Wells fargo allowed my sister and her husband who just lost everything in bad investment take control of my father’s life savings. Her and her husband are serial elder abuses that learned a trick and continued to use wells fargo power of attorney abuse
c/o owner documents leading to death of my family members taking their own lives from greed.
Over the last five months my mom has been scammed out of $500,000 through wire transfers and Zelle transactions from Wells Fargo. The scammer is obviously a Nigerian or a Middle Eastern but she thinks she is in a relationship with Elon musk, she met him on Instagram. She is 76 years old. I notified the bank manager five months ago that my mom is being scammed and that she recently closed her bank account at chase bank and opened it back up at Wells Fargo with a deposit of $400,000. His name is Jim Larrimore. He said to me that’s too bad we don’t wanna get involved. He knew the day she deposited that money and he did nothing. He looked on, and he let her transfer that money out of his bank. As soon as I can get guardianship of my mom, everybody who is responsible, will be asked to pay my mom back legally or not.