Is it a fraudster calling? Or Wells Fargo?
This phones cam began as they normally do, with a strange voice claiming that there is a problem with a loan that must be addressed immediately.
The scam me rs’ target fit their prime demographic, a married couple over 70 years old with a good credit score. Mag ali Wehr ley, though, isnot your typical 80-year-old. She has a special hatred for the fraudsters who call her home on average six times a day
“I get these idiotic calls, and I keep track, and I send the information off to( the FCC in) Washington ,” she said.
Someone at this toll-free number, though, had been calling three or four times a day for a week. So she picked upon Aug .4 to investigate.
“After saying ‘hello’ four times am an stated he has was calling about our loan. It old him we had no loan spending and have not applied for any loans anywhere ,” Wehr ley said. “When I asked the name of his company and his name, he was extremely rude and refused to tell me. So I told himto stop calling our number and being a nuisance.”
He called again two hours later,
infuriating Wehrley.
Most of us have answered phone calls from people claiming to represent banks, promising credit repair, offering car warranties or even pretending to be IRS auditors. Most of us also know the callers are criminals, but not all.
“Some people are gullible, and these people take advantage,” Wehrley said. She decided to call the tollfree number and was surprised to reach a phone tree for Wells Fargo, which has been in the news because employees were caught setting up millions of accounts without their customers’ permission.
“When Is a wall this on TV about what Wells Fargo was doing, It old( my husband) Dale, these idiots are trying to do the same thing to us!” she said. “Because I knew, we never applied for a loan. We don’ t need a loan. So why call me?”
Wehrley was no longer simply annoyed. She now feared for her and her husband’ s good credit. She decided to contact Wells Far goto make sure nothing unto ward was taking place.
We hr ley called the number again and worked her way through the automated instructions, searching for a human voice. Eventually, she reached a Wells Fargo representative named, Julia, but Julia said she needed Wehrley’s Social Security number to answer any questions, Wehrley said.
“No way was I going to give anyone at Wells Fargo my Social Security number ,” she told me. We hr ley demanded to speak to a supervisor named Jerica.
Jerica, though, also asked for the precious number, which experts agree you should never give to a stranger. Jerica transferred We hr ley to another supervisor, Tim, who again said he could no the l puntil she provided her the number. Tim eventually recommended she call the main office in Charlotte, N. C.
All We hr ley wanted was to confirm that no one had setup an account in her name, and to make sure she was placed on a no-call list. But no one would assist her until she provided theone things he did not want to reveal.
Wehrley filed a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and contacted her local business columnist.
I gave Wells Fargo a few days to research the case and then spoke to Ken Harrington, the manager of the company’ s Wholesale Telecommunications Group. Harrington explained that those initial calls were from fraudsters using a technology that allows them to transmit a fake phone number, something called spoofing. They use a real bank’ s number to build their credibility.
Wells Fargo has alerted the FCC, he said, but with the advent of internet phone systems, there is little else the company can do.
“It was probably coming from overseas,” hesaid.
What happened next, though, was all Wells Fargo.
“It appears as though they did get to an agent within a Wells Fargo call center, who was unable to help them, and more than likely that agent asked for their Social Security number in order to pull up their account, thinking that they maybe a customer, or that there maybe information on file under their Social Security number ,” Harrington said .“That’ s a common practice.”
He does understand, though, why We hr ley refused to give it up.
“They did absolutely the right thing. They didn’t give out their Social Security number,” Harrington added .“We tell our customers not to give that out if you have an yinkling that there is problem.”
No one has setup an ac- count at Wells Fargo under We hr le y’ s name, but she remains angry.
“They had better train their people properly because it is not acceptable that someone who is not a customer is being put through this,” she said “I don’t trust them. I’ve never heard of Chase doing this, or Bank of America. Wells Fargo is trouble.”
This is the long-term damage that scandal scan doto a firm’s reputation. Some people will forever associate Wells Far go with fraud.
Wells Fargo CEO John St um pf, who has become the poster child for corporate arrogance, thinks he’s them an to solve the problem he created and refuses to resign. Investors should realize that the longer he stays, the longer potential customers will think the company is nothing but trouble.