SAN FRANCISCO–Wells Fargo is again dealing with issues related to phony bank accounts—but this time with a twist.
While the bank has paid billions in fines for fake accounts opened in the name of current customers as front-line staff attempted to meet aggressive cross-sales goals, a new report says some people are finding they have accounts at the bank even though they have never been customers.
Synthetic account fraud is allegedly the culprit, according to NBC News.
As an example, the report cited one such person, Jay Patterson of Little Rock, Ark., who also happens to be a forensic accountant, who received a statement from Wells Fargo showing $12 in an “Everyday Checking” account in his name, an account he didn’t know about and had never opened.
‘Troubling Things’
Patterson immediately called Wells Fargo, a bank he has often scrutinized in his work, and it closed the account, NBC News reported. But he also continued to investigate and found “troubling things that even he, a finance expert, hadn’t known regarding how banks collect and disperse consumers’ financial data,” NBC News said.
Other consumers have reported “similarly mysterious” Wells Fargo bank accounts, the report added.
Funds Flowed Through Account
“…Patterson’s Wells Fargo account appears to be a case of synthetic identity fraud — when impostors create new identities using a combination of real and fake personal information, such as names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and drivers’ license numbers,” NBC News said. “…Thousands of dollars flowed through the account before it was shut. Patterson suffered no direct financial loss.”
Amy Bonitatibus, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, told NBC News in a statement that allegations of unlawful activity by Wells Fargo are without merit and that identity theft is a broad industry problem that the bank is working to minimize.
NBC News said there have been more than 40 similar complaints about fake accounts at Wells Fargo.
Told to ‘Hire an Attorney’
One such person in Colorado who filed a complaint over a fake account told authorities, “One of Wells Fargo’s representatives actually told me that if I wanted to get any information from Wells Fargo, I should hire an attorney!”
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