A woman is distraught that she’s lost $25,000 of her hard-earned small business money, in a scam in which she claims she thought she was stopping a wire transfer but was actually enabling one. Her dealings with Wells Fargo to try to recover the money have only added to her frustration and distress.
The tale comes from creator Taylor (@fitnfoodwithtaylor), who shared her story on TikTok on April 20 and has since drawn more than 574,000 views. In it, she describes getting a call from someone purporting to be from Wells Fargo that kicked off the whole nightmare scenario.
Wells Fargo wire transfer scam
“I got a call that actually came up on my phone as an 800 number from Wells Fargo,” she begins, “and this person was a scammer impersonating Wells Fargo. When I got on the phone with them, they told me that someone in San Antonio, Texas, had my driver’s license and a debit card with my name on it and was going into a branch in San Antonio … and they were trying to attempt a wire transfer in person.”
When she confirmed that she was not in San Antonio, the scammer put her on hold, came back on, and said the person had gone to another branch in San Antonio attempting another wire transfer. “He successfully got on into my Wells Fargo banking app while we were on the phone together, and had me what I thought was canceling the wire transfers, [but] was actually sending the wire transfers. I obviously was in a very vulnerable state and that point I have never done a wire transfer in my life.”
To give her a sense of relief, the person went as far as to tell Taylor that the person in San Antonio had been arrested thanks to their combined efforts.
However, after the episode, Taylor describes, “I suddenly had this gut feeling that I didn’t think that that was my bank. And so I called Wells Fargo about within five minutes of getting off that call with the person that scammed me $25,000. And basically Wells Fargo was useless right off the bat.”
She reports she got transferred several different places, was asked if she changed her online password (she had), and then reveals, “When I got to the fraud department, the first thing this lady said to me was, like, ‘How is this fraud?’”
She explained the situation, and as she revealed in the rest of this video, plus a Part 2 recorded the following day, Wells Fargo was not helpful in recovering the $25,000 that left her account.
“They gave me the same [expletive] runaround of, ‘Oh, well, the investigation has been open, but we have no updates,’” she said. “And that’s pretty much where I’m at. After listening to stories here on TikTok, I know that I’m not alone in this, which like, in a sickening way. it’s comforting to know that people have gone through it and know what I’m feeling.”
@fitnfoodwithtaylor PLEASE BE AWARE OF THIS WELLS FARGO SCAM. I will keep advocating and fighting for my self and MY money to be returned to me. PLEASE SHARE & GET THIS STORY OUT TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. #wellsfargoscam #wellsfargo #onlinescammers #andycohen ♬ original sound – Taylor-Metabolism Reboot Coach
Indeed, the Daily Dot has found a number of testimonials on TikTok about Wells Fargo customers who have lost their money through scams. Those include a woman’s claim that Wells Fargo “vanished” her decade-old savings account, a similar claim that the bank contested, another claim of a missing $550 that the bank contested, and a Wells Fargo customer who almost fell victim to a sophisticated phone scam.
At least one commenter to the video tried to shift the blame away from the bank.
“It’s not Wells Fargo’s fault,” that person said. “You should have hung up from that call and called Wells Fargo’s customer service number to ask about what that guy was telling you. Should have never been so trusting.”
A Wells Fargo representative, answering a query from the Daily Dot, noted, “We are working directly with the customer on this matter.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Taylor via TikTok comment.
