Wells Fargo Fined $3 Billion for 15 Years of Illegal Practices Affecting Million

[Baofeng]

Wells Fargo, one of the largest U.S. financial services companies, has agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve the U.S. government’s investigations into fraudulent sales practices spanning over 15 years. The Wells Fargo fraud case involved the company forging customer signatures, moving money from millions of customer accounts to unauthorized accounts, and misusing customers’ sensitive personal information.

https://news.bitcoin.com/wells-fargo/

Wells Fargo had agreed to settle and pay $3 billion to settle the case filed against them by the US government. And one shady practice?

"unlawfully misused customers’ sensitive personal information, including customers’ means of identification"

Another good reason for everyone to really put some investments on crypto specially BTC, BYOB (Be Your Own Bank) philosophy. Of course with KYC around, one can argue that our personal data can still be misused, but trusting banks, such as reputable as WF, then we need to think twice.

[Yaunfitda]

That is the scary part, misusing one's identify for the company's personal gain. And they didn't go anything about it, and as the article says, they admitted this shady practice of them. Kudos to the US DOJ for filing a case and exposing this fraudulent act, not even as big as Wells-Fargo can get away with it.

And as far as putting our money on crypto, of course there is still at risk, but if we know and educate our self, we could prevent someone from stealing it.

[STT]

Anyone whose been around a few years and been unfortunate enough to deal with banks too much knows if you are not very careful they will trip you up and treat any customer very badly.   This kind of news is no surprise to me, I had a bank charge me hundreds for going a couple dollar past an overdraft and you might think well you must have left it for ages but this was just between monthly statements.    I was lucky to win it back in open court case against and even recovered standard interest at 7% per annum on the funds they took, very unusual but there was a national judgement against them at that time.  
   The whole banking system is the most subsided and government aided industry of any other, its not for charity its self interest as the government has so much debt they need banks to be buying and dealing it.   Now the law requires banks to store government debt they are equally invested owners, hence these headlines are helping the narrative that government isnt biased to its financiers.

[Baby Dragon]

That is the scary part, misusing one's identify for the company's personal gain. And they didn't go anything about it, and as the article says, they admitted this shady practice of them. Kudos to the US DOJ for filing a case and exposing this fraudulent act, not even as big as Wells-Fargo can get away with it.

And as far as putting our money on crypto, of course there is still at risk, but if we know and educate our self, we could prevent someone from stealing it.

It is the reason why people are against with KYC because they are aware how risky it is to trust someone with their personal data. It can be an approach to deceive and exploit someone's funds and assets. I can't blame people for doubting banks to secure their funds because they are aware of such occurrences, and they are afraid to risk their money. Well, it is great that US DOJ have busted their system because Wells-Fargo will surely suffer the consequences of their actions.

[erikalui]

KYC was not so dangerous earlier but now almost all exchanges and projects ask for it, turn scam and sell our identities to people who use them to take loans etc. While I feel that some exchanges genuinely need KYC to avoid multi-accounts and secure individual assets, some out there are misusing it like Tradesatoshi recently forcing users to pass KYC to withdraw their own funds.

Here in this case, will those people be compensated whose documents were misused by this scammer?

[boyptc]

What? WF did this? if they actually did this then how come the other banks too?

This is why many doesn't like KYC because it can be misused by the provider or whoever asking it.

[Kemarit]

What? WF did this? if they actually did this then how come the other banks too?

This is why many doesn't like KYC because it can be misused by the provider or whoever asking it.

Probably more established banks not just in the US but globally are practicing this fraudulent act. Imagine if one of the biggest bank can do it, then how about those mid-tier banks that we trust for many years and unknowingly using our bank information for their own used?

I remember one local news here, a teacher identity has been used to make a loan to a government agency without here knowledge, we don't know how the criminals get all his data, maybe online or maybe someone inside a bank provided those criminals. So it's really hard to trust exchanges with our KYC, but then again, almost all of them are asking today, to it's really up to us.

[hugeblack]

When you talk about banks, your personal data will be safer than sending it to unknown platforms on the Internet.
If you want to return to the central system, do so with trusted people or at least you can try them if something happens to you and not just anonymous platforms with an unknown administration that uses the regulations in order to obtain more information from clients.
The current model is much worse than the banks.
To read more about KYC risks:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5221497.msg53726647#msg53726647

[sheenshane]

This is so sad. I can't imagine how much did Wells Fargo earned with their scheme. This news made me have trust issues with the bank. I feel very disappointed every time I learn things about the banks and how they do their businesses.

The $3 Billion dollars fined for the Wells Fargo is not enough to cover their misuse of identities of their users/depositor/ customers/client.
Another question is, where would be the $3 Billions goes then? Well well, another cash to be corrupted.


Reading this both threads and analyze the pros and cons regarding KYC/AML implementation, AML/KYC Explained and this, Why KYC is extremely dangerous – and useless.

[Baofeng]

This is so sad. I can't imagine how much did Wells Fargo earned with their scheme. This news made me have trust issues with the bank. I feel very disappointed every time I learn things about the banks and how they do their businesses.

Exactly mate, data did show how much money they make out of this scheme. But I will assume that it is close to $3 billion as usually DOJ or US SEC are seeking fine close to how much money they supposedly get from this fraudulent act.

The $3 Billion dollars fined for the Wells Fargo is not enough to cover their misuse of identities of their users/depositor/ customers/client.
Another question is, where would be the $3 Billions goes then? Well well, another cash to be corrupted.

As far as I know, those bank fines goes to US Treasury, but I don't know if it is possible to give it back to the victims, very complicated process.