ORANGE CO., Fla.,None — As many as 3,700 Wells Fargo bank customers in Florida may have had their bank statements sent to strangers. A Wells Fargo spokesman said on Thursday night, that a printer malfunction in a Charlotte, N.C. office was the cause of the September bank statements to be sent to the wrong customers.
The spokesman wouldn’t verify how many customers were affected, but said the customers shouldn’t worry because the risk that their information will be compromised is relatively low. Those accounts that were affected are entitled to a free year of identity theft protection, provided by the bank.
When Adelle Popolo received her bank statement in the mail the first page looked normal. It had her name and her account number that ends in the number eight, but when she flipped the page over and saw the account’s balance she did a double take.
"I know that I don’t have that in my account," said Popolo.
As she looked closer, she realized the statement was for an account number that ends in a five. It had a name she did not recognize and noted transactions that she never made.
"Well, my first reaction was, who's looking at mine and what are they planning on doing with it," said Popoplo.
WFTV heard complaints from other Wells Fargo customers when the same thing happened to them. WFTV went to Popolo’s local branch in east Orange County to look for answers.
Banks representatives there told WFTV’s reporter Drew Petrimoulx to call the corporate office.
When Petrimoulx called, a corporate spokesman for Wells Fargo first said the problem is affecting 3,700 customers in their 12-county Central Florida region. But then he called back said that number was merely a rough estimate for the entire state of Florida. Another Wells Fargo spokesman said the 3,700 figure is too high, but that one affected customer is one too many.
"They have no answers," said Popolo.
The spokesman told WFTV customers that are affected are being notified though the mail, but Wells Fargo does not think the mistake will lead to fraud.
Popolo disagrees with that statement. "They have my balance they have all my activity details and they know my name and address."
WFTV is checking to see how other Wells Fargo customers can check to see if they are affected. WFTV found that customers in South Carolina were also affected.
The Wells Fargo incident is the third mishandling of personal information WFTV has reported in just the past three weeks.
Some Florida Hospital employees are accused of accessing records for more than 2,000 patients to possibly sell the information. Also, personal information for 500,000 Florida patients simply vanished from Nemours’ corporate offices in Delaware.
WFTV
