4

I received an unexpected $150 check from Wells Fargo. The accompanying letter said they conducted a review of holds that were placed on consumer deposit accounts due to suspected fraud. Their research indicated that a hold was placed on my deposit account(s) that may have been unnecessary. Then it lists the last four digits for two accounts and says the check is to compensate me for any inconvenience.

I understand why Wells Fargo is reviewing their suspected fraud holds, but I haven't had an account with Wells Fargo in over 20 years. When I called to find out more, the only thing the representative was able to determine was that this would be for accounts open between 2012 and 2017.

My first name is also spelled incorrectly on the letter & check, which suggests either they have people manually typing in information within the remediation group (which would be sad, but possible), or that this wasn't an account I personally opened. They did have my SSN, though. As far as I know, I was not the victim of any ID theft from 2012-2017.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what this might be from or where I should look?

nebulopathy
  • 41
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
    Did you call WF at a publicly published number, or at a number included with the check? How exactly was it determined that they had your SSN? – glibdud Sep 01 '20 at 21:18
  • 2
    Given that it's Wells Fargo, I wouldn't immediately rule out the possibility that there was an account in your name during that period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scandal#Fraud – Anyon Sep 01 '20 at 22:11
  • 1
    The phone number seems valid and the last four SSN digits matched. The current theory is that this is a payoff for them opening accounts in my name as @Anyon suggested. There's nothing from WF on my current credit report about it, but would it still be on there from 2012? – nebulopathy Sep 01 '20 at 22:47
  • 1
    A deposit account would not be on your credit report at all, because it's not credit. An associated overdraft line would/could go on your credit report, but post-2010 a bank isn't supposed to open overdraft without customer consent. Of course they also aren't supposed to open an account without customer consent, and WF did. – dave_thompson_085 Sep 02 '20 at 03:12
  • 1
    I also received the check. I did have a wells Fargo acct breifly till i realized they were trash.... It was fed ex overnight shipped. And i am on hold trying to figure out the validity of said check – Manderrrz13 Sep 01 '20 at 23:39
  • @nebulopathy Did the last four digits of the accounts they quoted match the account you had? But if you've not had an account "in over 20 years", and they are processing accounts between 2012 and 2017 (less than 10 years ago), this sounds fishy. – TripeHound Sep 02 '20 at 11:00
  • 1
    I got three, one for me and one for each of my eldest sons I called. They said I had teen accounts for my boys during that period. I didn’t. The identifying information matches though so I cashed the checks. Weird. – Rick Hilton Sep 20 '20 at 21:45
  • 2
    @dave_thompson_085: There are most certainly reporting bureaus (chexsystems.com, earlywarning.com) that list deposit accounts and activity thereon. They may not be "credit reports" but FCRA applies to them and OP should order copies. – Ben Voigt Sep 22 '20 at 21:13

0 Answers0