{"id":131461,"date":"2016-09-08T19:34:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T01:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/calling-wells-fargo-to-account-both-real-and-fake.html"},"modified":"2016-09-08T19:34:33","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T01:34:33","slug":"calling-wells-fargo-to-account-both-real-and-fake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/calling-wells-fargo-to-account-both-real-and-fake.html","title":{"rendered":"Calling Wells Fargo to Account (both real and fake)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I've known people who worked in bank branches, and one thing that has steadily escalated over the years has been pressure to expand business. This goes beyond "suggestive selling" like at Burger King ("Would you also like fries with that?"). Bank personnel are not just incented to keep expanding the number of accounts, foist off new credit cards, and get their customers to acquire other (fee-heavy) services, they are heavily _dis_incented to let any customer get away without it. Don't open the quota of new accounts in a week or a month, and your job might be on the line — and that pressure went right up the line from tellers and any of the folks sitting at desks at the branch floor, to their managers, and their regional managers..<\/p>\n

So it's not at all surprising to discover that some Wells Fargo staff simply cheated. They opened up new accounts that weren't asked for. They created fake email addresses to make it seem that people were signing up for online banking. They simply attached services to accounts that weren't requested and weren't realized until a customer noticed the fees cropping up.<\/p>\n

'In all, Wells Fargo employees opened roughly 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards that may not have been authorized by customers, the regulators said in a news conference. The bank has 40 million retail customers. Some customers noticed the deception when they were charged unexpected fees, received credit or debit cards in the mail that they did not request, or started hearing from debt collectors about accounts they did not recognize. But most of the sham accounts went unnoticed, as employees would routinely close them shortly after opening them.<\/i><\/p>\n

Wells Fargo is famous for its culture of cross-selling products to customers — routinely asking, say, a checking account holder if she would like to take out a credit card. Regulators said the bank’s employees had been motivated to open the unauthorized accounts by compensation policies that rewarded them for opening new accounts; many current and former Wells employees told regulators they had felt extreme pressure to open as many accounts as possible.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Well, most of those folk (unfortunately, it sounds like the workers out on the line, not the executives who created these sell-or-get-fired incentives) have been … well, fired, and Wells Fargo has been fined by a number of sources to the tune of $185 million, plus having to refund $2.6 million in unauthorized fees.<\/p>\n

Of course, Wells has been making around a 25% annual profit margin the past five years on current annual revenue of over $82 billion<\/i> over the last twelve months, so while $185 million isn't going to look nice in the headlines, it's hardly going to break the bank, so to speak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nWells Fargo Fined for Fraudulently Opening Accounts for Customers<\/a><\/span>
\nFederal banking regulators say that the bank issued unauthorized credit cards and charged late fees on accounts created by bank employees but not authorized by customers.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've known people who worked in bank branches, and one thing that has steadily escalated over the years has been pressure to expand business. This goes beyond "suggestive selling" like at Burger King ("Would you also like fries with that?"). Bank personnel are not just incented to keep expanding the number of accounts, foist off … Continue reading “Calling Wells Fargo to Account (both real and fake)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22995,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/07\/unblogged-bits-fri-7-oct-11-1130.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":0},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Fri. 7-Oct-11 1130)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Oct-11 11:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Barnes & Noble Pulls Watchmen, Sandman And 100 DC Graphic Novels From Their Shelves Over Amazon Kindle Fire Deal Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors - Wow. I can understand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135189,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/25\/republicans-still-republicans.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":1},"title":"There are Republicans, and there are still Republicans","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Oct-17 8:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Now and again there are these GOP politicians who bubble up to the top of the stew that get loud cheers and huzzahs from the madding crowd because they dissent from one particular vote, or say a particularly biting thing about the GOP president, Mr Trump. And then they sink\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/160729-jeff-flake-ap-11601.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/160729-jeff-flake-ap-11601.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/160729-jeff-flake-ap-11601.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/160729-jeff-flake-ap-11601.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/160729-jeff-flake-ap-11601.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42181,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/25\/biography-obit-for-harold-w-hill.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":2},"title":"Biography \/ Obit for Harold W. Hill","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 25-May-14 11:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"As Mom is visiting us this weekend (and I'm so glad she is), I'm catching up on the \"paperwork\" from Dad's passing a few weeks back. This is the more detailed biography\/obit that I wrote up for him. I've included the pix below with earlier posts.--------Hal was born in 1935\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/hwh2008-12-25%20hal%20gloria.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131390,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/28\/on-tim-kaine.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":3},"title":"On Tim Kaine","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 28-Aug-16 10:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Democratic Senator from Virginia is Hillary Clinton's running mate. I found this an interesting article about his past, and how his Catholic faith informs his life and politics. Spiritually motivated: How Tim Kaine navigates his faith and politics | National Catholic Reporter Sen. Tim Kaine (Democrat of Virginia) makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131607,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/21\/the-buck-and-millions-of-bucks-stops-here.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":4},"title":"The Buck (and millions of bucks) Stops Here","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Sep-16 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate was not terribly sympathetic -- from either party -- in grilling the CEO of Wells Fargo over widespread account creation fraud, false or unauthorized accounts being generated without customer permission in order to meet cross-selling quotas by lower-level employeeshttp:\/\/nyti.ms\/2cmEep4I have, in fact, little doubt that John G. Stumpf\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/GTY_john_stumpf_01_jef_160920_16x9_9925B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/GTY_john_stumpf_01_jef_160920_16x9_9925B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/GTY_john_stumpf_01_jef_160920_16x9_9925B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20745,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/14\/customer-disservice.html","url_meta":{"origin":131461,"position":5},"title":"Customer Disservice","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Apr-11 9:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Chase: I appreciate that wire fraud is a common illicit activity, especially with hacked bank accounts. I can even understand, if you see a first-time overseas wire transfer that you might be worried that it's fraudulent and both lock the online account and block the transfer. But if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Chase-300x55.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}