LAKESIDE, Calif. — The Scott’s have banked through Wells Fargo for roughly 30 years in January. They say they’ve been loyal customers and haven’t had any problems with scammers or fraud claims until this year.
In January hackers tried to drain almost $50,000 from the Scott's multiple Wells Fargo bank accounts. The couple says the bank will not refund their money.
“Once they hacked our email name and our password, they were able to go directly in to our account and start working on it,” said Ron Scott.
He takes us back to January 9, when he got a call from his wife Jan. She asked him if he transferred $19,000 out of their bank account.
“I said, it’s got to be some kind of a glitch in the system. It’s got to be a mistake,” said Scott.
But it wasn’t a mistake on their end. Hackers moved $50,000 from several of Jan’s personal Wells Fargo accounts to Ron’s web development small business account, RsConcepts Consulting in Lakeside.
The hackers then tried to funnel the money in two $25,000 transactions.
“If you have that many accounts, where large withdrawals are made instantaneously, the system should be refusing all of them,” said Scott.
The system did deny $20,000 but that still leaves the Scott’s $30,000 in the hole and that doesn’t include fees that added up to $1,184.
“The Sheriff's department was very, very good and thorough in what they did,” said Scott.
San Diego Sheriff’s investigated and confirmed with CBS 8 this is fraud. They told the Scotts the hackers are linked it to another Wells Fargo customer in Pennsylvania to Hydra Communications LTD with fictitious names.
Scamalytics considers the website to be a potentially medium fraud risk.
The Scott’s say the Sheriff’s department and the local Wells Fargo branch have helped but the bank’s fraud department has not.
CBS 8 called Wells Fargo for comment, but was told they wouldn’t respond until more research was done on this case.
Mr. Scott says he bears some responsibility in not having strong password protection but says Wells Fargo should be on the hook for the cyber breach.
“We’re sitting in front of you hoping that you can help us to convince Wells Fargo’s fraud department to replace our monies because they are if not more responsible than we are,” said Scott.
Email exchanges between the Scott’s and Wells Fargo show they denied the claim because the transactions were done through a 'secure' site.
The Scott’s now have two-factor authentication set up.
Remember if you ever receive a fraud alert via phone, text, or email, independently confirm with the bank or credit card company.
CBS 8 will keep you updated on any developments in this case.
8/02/2024 Update
After a two-month investigation, Wells Fargo sent CBS 8 a statement:
Safeguarding our customers’ assets is our top priority, and we have robust security protocols and measures in place. When a customer reports suspected fraud or a scam, we conduct a comprehensive investigation. In this case, all of the available information we reviewed supports our decision.”
A spokesperson for Wells Fargo adds that in their in-depth reviews and investigations, found no evidence of a hack, or cyber breach on their end and they have seen evidence of device takeover.
"Customer education is essential to preventing scams. That’s why we have increased our education efforts through alerts in online banking sessions, customer communications, and our Online Security Center."
The Scott's still believe their device was hacked.
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