Description

Thursday, March 6, 2025 1:33 AM Received a phone call from "Wells Fargo fraud department" to verify with me if I opened a new Wells Fargo account. I don't have any accounts with Wells Fargo. Told me the account was opened using my personal details and proceeded to list them "for verification purposes" which was my name, address, phone number, SS#. They matched except the email address was not mine which was an @verizon.net domain. She questioned me on if I recognized (2) zelle transactions to the account that totaled to $4K - I did not. She then gave me a Wells Fargo case #, as well as cancellation codes for the (2) attempted zelle transactions and stated they will be sending me documents related to the investigation by mail in a 3-5 business days which I can use to file a police report. Advised me to call Zelle's fraud department, provide them with the case #'s and cancellation codes, and gave me a direct number which I called after. A "Zelle fraud department" representative picked up and had me run some zelle transaction tests which they needed to do to track down the person who attempted to open the WF account and transfer funds via zelle to it. Saying it's a check to review how the zelle transactions are being authenticated. He had me punch in "codes" in the "amount" box of the zelle form starting with "00" prefix followed by 98965 or 199537 assuring me punching in the prefix will not process the funds transfer but the 1st test ended up transferring funds. They did send back the 1st test transaction that went through and i was able to cancel the other transactions. With each test he was asking me if i received a text or email from the bank asking for verification of the transaction. He would put me on hold periodically to check with his managers. I was not to use the same manager codes more than 1X. We left off with him setting up a time to call me back the next day to give me an update on the investigation. It didn't sit right with me after I put the phone down. I believe they were trying to get passed my 2 factor authentication to gain full access to my bank accounts. I alerted my banks to the scam and they took measures to protect my accounts and restricting access. Directed me to notify Trans Union and have tech support clear my devices of malware ASAP.