Some Wells Fargo customers got a shock when they checked their accounts. Direct deposits they were expecting never showed up. At least in some cases, other deposits disappeared as well.
In a statement to the media, Wells Fargo said the issue affected “a limited number of customers” and that most of the cases were quickly resolved. The bank didn’t elaborate on what caused the problem but some customers had a similar experience earlier this year.
In March, some Wells Fargo customers complained that money disappeared from their accounts before eventually being returned. At the time, the bank blamed the issue on an unspecified “technical issue.”
Some problems with direct deposit may have appeared sporadically before this latest incident. In July ConsumerAffairs heard from David, a business owner from Woodland, Calif., who said his new “Direct Pay” account was suspended for two weeks as a precautionary measure.
“I found out when our payroll and rent didn't go out as scheduled,” David told us. “Missing payroll right after a rocky buyout didn't go over very well with the employees. Two weeks without online banking has been a nightmare in itself. It is mind-boggling that Wells Fargo had absolutely no way to resolve the issue sooner. The local bank manager thought it was absurd, yet couldn't do anything about it.”
Bumpy PR road
Wells Fargo has experienced a bumping public relations road over the last few years. The bank has paid out billions of dollars in fines and reimbursements for opening unauthorized checking and credit card accounts and wrongfully repossessing automobiles.
NBC News has reported that at least one consumer, who has never banked at Wells Fargo, received a statement from the bank for an account he never opened.
“Whoever did that had my name and Social Security number,” Jay Patterson, the consumer, told NBC News. “My date of birth was wrong, the driver's license information was wrong.”
Patterson believes the account was set up by a fraudster, who created a synthetic identity to establish an account to launder money. NBC News quotes security experts as saying Wells Fargo should have flagged the account as fraudulent.
