One of the world’s largest banks, Wells Fargo, has been caught creating ‘ghost’ accounts and then charging these ‘customers’ for accounts they never signed up for. Roughly 1.5 million bank accounts and cards were illegally authorized and charged. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced the bank will be fined $100 million for the scam. Around 5,300 employees, who did this in order to receive year-end bonuses, were also fired because of the scam.
#WellsFargo fined $185 million for unauthorized bank account & credit card openings. https://t.co/WjmfpymR0H At least 5,300 employees fired.
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) September 9, 2016
“The Bank had compensation programs for its employees that encouraged them to sign up existing clients for deposit accounts, credit cards, debit cards, and online banking,” the CFPB wrote on its website. “According to today’s enforcement action, thousands of Wells Fargo employees illegally enrolled consumers in these products and services without their knowledge or consent in order to obtain financial compensation for meeting sales targets.”
This scam supposedly began in 2011 and for the last five years, roughly 1.5 million deposit accounts and 65,000 credit-card accounts were created. The CFPB did not say how they found out about this major violation, but they are definitely taking steps to hold Wells Fargo responsible.
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