Wells Fargo Fires 5,300 Employees For Creating Millions of Phony Accounts (cnn.com)

a report from CNNMoney:

Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn't even sign up for.

 That's exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide.
 
 On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011.

 The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.

 Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees related to the shady behavior over the last few years.

 Employees went so far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said. 

The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened up over 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB. 

Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. 

The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers.

 The report says that "employees moved funds from customers' existing accounts into newly-created accounts without theier knowledge or consent," which resulted in "customers being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees," since their original accounts didn't contain the money.

What's more is that "Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their knowledge or consent," causing customers who had unauthorized credit cards opened in their names to be "hit by annual fees, interest charges and other fees."

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A few years back i got zapped by Wells Fargo employees.

I wanted to just open up a business account.

A very nice young lady was helping me.

She told me that i would first need to open a personal checking account and that I would need to have a credit card account opened to tie into the account.

So I did what she told me.

I was declined the business account.

So I tried to close the personal checking account and the credit card.

The next month I get hit with account maintenance fees and overdraft fees.

I call up and am told that the accounts will be closed when i have satisfied the fees.

I pay up and guess what, the next month the same thing happens.

My accountant tells me that I should have gone to Wells Fargo "Business Bank."

So I do and the nice man says that my chances of getting a business account would be greater if i open up an "Identity Theft" protection account.

So I did and was declined a business account.

Needless to say I had to go to the bank manager and tell him that I would spread my story all over the net if he didn't release me from all the unneeded products from his bank.

All I wanted was a business account.

Well now that the news is out on the net about corruption by Wells Fargo Employees I can tell you my story. 

This is what happens when a company gives great incentive to employees to sell products to people that they don't need.

It ultimately ended up costing the bank.

Now they are back peddling.

Wells Fargo is just now realizing their wonderful employees have been going a bit overboard with enthusiasm at selling products.