Wells Fargo Refuses To Reimburse Customer After $15,000 Drained From Account in Sophisticated Scam: Report

An Omaha grandmother is fighting for reimbursement from Wells Fargo after her savings were drained by someone claiming to work at the bank.

Arlene Gibbs says she received worrying text messages telling her that three of her accounts had been compromised and that further action was required, reports  the NBC-affiliated news station WOWT.

Gibbs says the messages, which came from Wells Fargo’s phone number and purported to be from the bank’s fraud department, were too convincing to ignore.

The messages directed Gibbs to move all her money – including her grandson’s savings – from her bank to a Cash App account. Gibbs says she ultimately transferred the funds to a Cash App account, which allowed scammers to access and steal her money.

“I’m out about $15,000…

I can look back now and say, ‘Okay, maybe I should have saw this or that,’ but it all started with messages and phone calls from Wells Fargo. How would I know [the phone number] is cloned?”

Gibbs has enlisted the help of Omaha-based Green Credit, a private debt resolution company, to try to claw back at least some of her money.

Fraud experts from the firm told FirstAlert6 that three separate victims have recently come to them with similar scam stories, with losses totaling $37,000.

“There’s too many of them… One of our first clients literally was in Wells Fargo within an hour. You’d think they could pull that money back.”

Another Green Credit executive says that there is usually no way to retrieve funds once they are transferred out of a bank account.

“These are funds you are going to lose immediately and we won’t be able to recover them.”

Gibbs is still hoping to be reimbursed for her losses, but she says her conversations with Wells Fargo indicate that she shouldn’t be holding her breath.

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