Rising fury at Wells Fargo as grandmothers who lost their life savings to cruel scammers urge lawsuit-hit bank to act NOW
Two more Wells Fargo customers have revealed how they lost their life savings to scammers, as the bank faces a wave of lawsuits questioning the robustness of its anti-fraud measures.
Retired opera singer Jolinda Crocker, 63, claims she was scammed out of $60,000 by criminals, while 75-year-old accountant Judy Burr says she lost $23,000 in an eerily similar situation. Neither of the women – both grandmothers – received a refund from the bank.
Wells Fargo has been hit with a series of lawsuits in recent months criticizing its security measures of not being fit for purpose.
DailyMail.com has uncovered audio transcripts from one case that allegedly highlight the moment a bank employee allowed a scammer to steal a customer’s savings worth $100,000 in less than ten minutes.
Court documents from a second claim The bank’s own security systems raised warnings about a fraudulent transfer, but employees dismissed the concerns.
Cybersecurity experts are now calling for an update to industry regulations to hold banks more accountable for cases of fraud.
Jolinda Crocker, 63, claims she was scammed out of $60,000 by criminals who managed to gain access to her account
Judy Burr, 75, says she lost $23,000 in an eerily similar thrill. Neither grandmother received a refund from the bank
Jolinda, from California, was teaching at one of the music schools she owns in Italy when she says she received a message from Wells Fargo asking her to call them.
She dutifully called the bank staff, who told her they needed to verify that she had made two wire transfers worth $24,973 and one worth just under $10,000 in September 2021.
It appeared that fraudsters had moved the money between her accounts and sent it to five different recipients.
Jolinda claims she then filed a fraud report online as advised and thought the problem had been resolved.
But when she chased the bank ten days later, the staff accused her of authorizing the transfer herself.
DailyMail.com has seen statements indicating she had made transactions from a device in Italy.
That same day, someone logs into her account from an address in California where the transactions are made. Jolinda later regained access to her account from Italy.
‘I would never transfer such a large sum of money in my life. I run a small music school,” she told DailyMail.com.
Two years later, she is still fighting for her money and even hires her own detective to work on the case.
Judith Anderson, of Chula Vista, San Diego, was defrauded of her savings that she used to fund her husband’s hospice care. She is pictured on the right, with daughter Tracy Martinez, on the left
She added, “It feels like everyone is just rolling their eyes. $60,000 is nothing to Wells Fargo, but it is my savings.”
Her story mirrors that of 75-year-old Judy Burr, who was defrauded out of $23,865 by criminals posing as Wells Fargo’s fraud investigation team.
The criminals asked her to check some transactions they claim were made from her account. Alarmingly, they had her social security number and other personal information, making it appear as if they were real bank employees.
While they were trying to access Judy’s account, the bank sent a one-time authorization code to her phone. The scammers ordered her to read it to them.
In the eyes of Wells Fargo staff, this meant that she had personally authorized the transaction.
Judy, an accountant from Las Vegas, told DailyMail.com: ‘I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even want to meet my friends for dinner. I felt like such an idiot.
“I have been a Wells Fargo customer for over twenty years, but they have refused to take any responsibility. They made me go through endless loops to get my money back.”
Victims of bank fraud fall between gaping cracks in the regulations, making it more difficult to receive refunds.
Revealed: How a Wells Fargo Employee Allowed Fraudsters to Steal $100,000 of Their Customers’ Money in Less Than Ten Minutes
It is the second lawsuit to come to light this month accusing Wells Fargo’s security measures of not being fit for purpose.
Rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) require banks to reimburse victims of unauthorized electronic fund transfers (EFTs).
The agency’s Regulation E guidelines define an unauthorized transaction as “from a consumer’s account, initiated by a person other than a consumer with actual authority to initiate the transfer and from which the consumer receives no benefit.”
However, the definition of EFT notably does not cover electronic fund transfers, meaning banks are not forced to refund victims who lose money this way.
Still, Wells Fargo’s own card agreement states that the bank will not hold customers “liable for unauthorized use of their account.”
Brian Filas, a fraud expert and founder of Patronum partners, told DailyMail.com: ‘We will continue to see similar stories until wire transfer laws in the United States are updated. These rules were written long before the average consumer could send $50,000 from their phone.
‘While most banks do a great job of preventing fraud before it happens, losses still happen. Unfortunately, if the bad guys use a wire to steal money, some financial institutions will try to use these outdated regulations to shift the loss back to the customer.”
Victim Alice Fries, 59, was approached by criminals posing as the bank’s fraud department and tricked her into handing over her personal details, which they then used to access her account.
So far this year, DailyMail.com has reported three stories blaming Wells Fargo’s anti-fraud controls for failing customers.
Recordings filed in one lawsuit document a phone call in which a Wells Fargo employee allegedly overrides the company’s own security measures so the scammers can transfer victim Alice Fries’ life savings.
In the call, the staff member is said to acknowledge that it is an ‘unusual amount’ and therefore ‘the account has been flagged’. The mother of one has not received a refund from the bank other than an offer of a $50 “courtesy credit.”
Similarly, victim Thomas Murrer was defrauded of more than $30,000 by criminals posing as bank employees.
Court documents show that Wells Fargo’s systems indicated the fraudsters’ calls were coming from a non-Murrer number, but approved the transactions anyway.
Amazingly, Murrer’s lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleges that after scammers targeted Murrer’s accounts, they called from the same number three months later, posing as a different customer.
Even though that number had clearly been used for fraud before, the scammers regained access to the account.
A fifth victim, Judith Anderson, 74, also lost $150,000 to criminals – although she received a refund after her story went viral on TikTok.
In all three cases, the scammers successfully spoofed Wells Fargo’s fraud investigation team number and pretended to be acting on behalf of the bank. The money was also sent via bank transfer in both cases.
It is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the bank, which was forced to pay $3 billion in 2020 after employees were found to have created millions of fake accounts for customers.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo told DailyMail.com: “Fraud and scams are an industry-wide concern. Protecting our customers’ assets is our top priority and we have robust security protocols and measures in place.
“As scams continue to change and evolve, we continue to invest in technology and training to stay ahead of emerging threats.
“We also actively work to raise awareness of scams through a variety of means, including ongoing, consumer-focused education efforts.”