Elizabeth Warren Takes Wells Fargo and Zelle to Task Last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published របាយការណ៍ describing “rampant fraud and theft” through the payment app. According to data provided by four banks using Zelle, $90 million in customer money was taken by scams and fraud claims in 2020, and on pace to go over $255 million in 2022.
Warren’s report singled out Wells Fargo as a bank where Zelle fraud was particularly prevalent — the number of fraudulent transfers rose 2.5 times between 2019 and 2022. The senator further said that the bank “attempted to mislead” by capping the data it provided in 2021.
The report prompted a heated back-and-forth between Warren and Wells Fargo — a spokesperson for the bank called the analysis “misleading and inaccurate” while Warren published another letter calling the response dismissive given the “extraordinarily high and rapidly increasing instances of fraud and scams affecting Wells Fargo customers.”
“Your customers — who have in recent years endured dozens of examples of lawbreaking and mistreatment by your bank — deserve better,” Warren wrote in a letter បានផ្ញើទៅ Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf on Monday.
This Is Not Wells Fargo’s First Scandal Rodeo Currently the third biggest bank in the U.S., Wells Fargo has been embroiled in a number of scandals in the last decade. Back in 2013, the company paid $175 million to settle ការចោទប្រកាន់ ថាវាផ្តល់អត្រាខ្ពស់ជាង និងថ្លៃបញ្ចាំដល់បេក្ខជនជនជាតិស្បែកខ្មៅ និងជនជាតិអេស្ប៉ាញ។
In 2020, the Department of Labor accused the firm of discriminating against Black job applicants and the bank agreed to pay approximately $8 million in back wages while Scharf himself became the center of controversy after sending a memo saying Wells Fargo wants to ramp up diversity efforts but struggles to find qualified Black candidates .
But when it comes to Zelle, the problem lies with its immediacy — while attractive to those looking to pay fast and without extra fees, bypassing the longer bank clearance process makes it prime territory for fraudsters.
As a peer-to-peer app, money lost to fraud through Zelle is also not guaranteed the same protections. Warren’s report claimed that those who reported unauthorized payments through Zelle in 2021 and the first half of 2022 received only 47% of the dollar amount back.
“Limit who you’re sending money to through payment apps to people and businesses you trust, and secure your accounts by beefing up your password strength,” NerdWallet’s Sean Pyles បាននិយាយនៅលើ the Smart Money podcast.