Wells Fargo, an American banking and financial services company, has been caught amidst a massive five-year long scam. Over the course of those five years, employees of Wells Fargo fraudulently opened 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards without their customers' consent or knowledge. The bank pushed its employees to engage in this fraudulent behavior through impractical and strict quotas under the threat of losing their jobs. The result? Thousands of Wells Fargo low level employees have been fired. And the fines received by the company amounted to over $185 million, $100 million of that 185 being from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
This article is an essential read because Wells Fargo, a large, well-known, and credible corporation, has gotten away with cheating their customers for five years. This could happen to anyone. As the L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer said, "Customers must be able to trust their banks." People look to banks to keep their money secure. There is a great deal of trust in that. The last thing they suspect is for their bank to be stealing and deceiving them. This speaks to the very stability of our economy and the health of our country.
