'Trust no one': North Texas woman loses over $13K to scammers posing as Wells Fargo

SIENNA, Texas - Charleedra Johnson-Hatton of Frisco thought it was Wells Fargo Bank calling in May 2024. She then realized her phone had been spoofed.

What they're saying:

After she realized the caller was a scammer, Charleedra immediately went to the Wells Fargo in Sienna. She says the manager there believed she had been scammed, but all that changed after corporate officials got involved. 

Every internal investigation ended the same: Wells Fargo blamed Charleedra for allowing scammers to access her account.

In the letters, Wells Fargo points to Charleedra transferring all her funds from her savings to checking, which she says the scammers instructed her to do.

The scammers drained her money through Zelle and Apple Pay. 

Charleedra lost all the money one day after she took the funds from her 401K to use as a down payment on a house.

What did she learn from the ordeal?

"Trust no one," she said.

The other side:

In a prepared statement, Wells Fargo said," We deeply empathize with those affected by financial scams and understand the significant emotional and financial toll on its victims."

Tips to avoid scams

What you can do:

Wells Fargo sent some tips to help you from becoming a victim of a scam. Helping to prevent scams is a joint effort and vigilance is key. 

Here are some tips:

• Be wary of unexpected calls, texts, social media posts, or emails from scammers impersonating banks, tech support companies and government agencies.
• Don’t trust caller ID. Scammers can "spoof" legitimate numbers.
• Don’t be pressured or rushed into make a transaction.
• Don’t send or transfer money without carefully verifying the recipient and the request as legitimate.
• Common tactics include asking you to provide sensitive personal information or to send money to help stop a phony transaction or receive a refund.
• Your bank won’t ask you to send your physical card, a payment, or transfer or withdraw funds to prevent or stop fraud in your account. If you get a call asking for that, immediately hang up and call your bank directly.
• Don’t share personal information such as passwords, PIN numbers or access codes.
• If you are uncomfortable with a request received by phone call or text that you didn’t initiate, don’t respond and hang up immediately. Contact the company using legitimate sources.