Wells Fargo customers who use Zelle to send and request payments suffer more than twice the rate of fraud and other online scams as people using other big banks, according to US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Warren chastised both financial firms in letters to their CEOs this week: she said Wells Fargo had sent her an “evasive and misleading reply,” and Zelle parent company Early Warning Services had made “inaccurate” claims, in response to an investigation she led into banking fraud that stems from Zelle’s payment system. She called on both companies to release all data on Zelle-related fraud and scams.
It’s worth noting that seven of the largest US banks including Wells Fargo own Early Warning Services (EWS), and thus Zelle. The other six are Bank of America, Truist, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank and US Bank.
Wells Fargo fraud ‘twice as high’ as other big banks
In a November 7 letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, Warren cited her October “analysis of the limited data you provided in response to my information request” about fraud affecting the bank’s customers who use Zelle.
“First, the frequency of Zelle fraud and scams reported by Wells Fargo customers was more than twice as high as it was for comparable banks for which we had data,” Warren wrote [PDF] this week.
“And second, the frequency of fraud and scams reported by Wells Fargo customers had increased significantly in…
