Scammers Scams

Bank of America is the largest US bank founded in 1904, it has expanded through several acquisitions. By the end of 2009, Bank of America was the market leader serving 82% of the US population and over 53 million customers. They are positioned as number one in online and mobile banking. Their mobile banking services were launched in 2007 and have gained 4 million customers in less than three years. Acquisitions made by Bank of America prior to the financial crisis caused a very strong drop in their stock price.

1. Case Study:  “Don’t Let Crooks Steal Your Identity: How to Protect Yourself-and Your Credit Rating” (p. 225)

It has come to my attention from the security analysts of VL Bank and victims that commercial customers of VL Bank have been involved in identity theft and fraud. Multiple user accounts were created without authorization claiming the identity of our customers. These fake accounts were used to make twenty-nine transfers of $10,000 each, equaling $290,000. The bank transfers were being sent to several U.S. bank accounts of unknown individuals. The U.S. banks involved in the transfers were Bank A in California, Bank B in New York, Bank C in Texas, and Bank D in Florida. After the funds were transferred to one of these banks, the funds were

set to steal your information as well as what steps to take once you became a victim of credit

The America first isn 't the only credit union who offers members the opportunity to excess their accounts on the internet. The option to access accounts and perform tasks is a new tool available to all members. This technology to do account tasks online is a great opportunity to seize. As any other company would do, the America First Credit Union offers their members the opportunity to report any fraud type of emails to an email address. The email address is the following; email fraud@americafirst.com. This email address will help to stop and prevent any type of fraud that may be lurking on the internet. This credit union company isn 't for everyone. The eligibility requirements are high for those who do not reside in the same county as the company. But that doesn 't mean the company isn 't a good company to have a membership with. If you are in the residence of the county, look up the company to see if you qualify for a membership. America First Credit Union is a good union to join. Try it for yourself.

(2)Since 2011, Wells Fargo’s employees have been secretly creating millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts, and some Wells Fargo employees even created fake Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) as well as fake email addresses to give the illusion of a growing customer base. The fake accounts earned the bank unwarranted excess fees, which led to increased sales figures. Everyone who had a legit account with Wells Fargo and the people who owned stocks in Wells Fargo were affected. Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said, “Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses" (Cordray, 2016). The unethical behavior led to the termination of about 5,300 employees, and eventually Wells Fargo had to pay over $185 million dollars in fines, plus an additional $5 million to each affected customer.

Hi Bill, I'm on a call with Bank of America merchant services and they have you listed as their point of contact. I am inquiring as to why we have not received any new activity in the all activity summary report since 9/7/2016. They mentioned that they try to charge us their monthly fee and were unable to collect. Therefore, they put our account on hold. Could you please verify the account # ending on

Employee rewards were linked to how many accounts they could open. Employees could reach both the rewards and sales quota by moving money out of one account to another. Banks require a minimum amount of $1,500 in a debit account or else they charge a fee; by moving money into a separate account, the customer’s real account would be under the minimum thus leaving customers to pay that fee. (Wells Fargo, 2017 March 14) By having these accounts, workers would reach their quota and the company got more money; this lead Wells Fargo to hold the title of most profitable and highest bank (Avalos, 2016). Fake unpaid credit card accounts have totaled over $400,000 in overdue fees. The government has charged Wells Fargo to pay five million to refund all customers. Ranging from tellers to corporate, over 5,300 employees who were involved in the scam have been fired. (Blake,

Bank of America thrives off of the premise that they are aiming to enhance the financial lives of their customers. Per the Code of Conduct, Bank of America believes in treating all of their customers equally; they claim to expand beyond expectations to deliver satisfactory customer service; they implement discipline to eliminate financial risks to customers; they pride themselves on acting responsibly; and they strive to help individuals to reach their full financial potential. This company enforces the belief that they honor their ethics fully. This includes making

On September 8 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) announced that it was taking an enforcement action against Wells Fargo Bank . Wells Fargo is a Fortune 100 company and one of the "Big Four Banks" of the United States. Investigations conducted by the Bureau revealed that employees of the bank created unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts across the country to meet sales goals. Over the years, the bank’s employees opened over 1.5 million fraudulent bank accounts and 0.5 million fake credit card accounts for customers, to meet sales targets and obtain bonuses. The affected consumers, were being harmed by the associated charges and fees for these accounts. The fees include insufficient funds or overdraft fees for the deposit accounts and annual fees for credit card accounts.

This practice was so common that Wells Fargo employees had several methods for doing this. The first method is sand bagging. Sand Bagging involves failing to open accounts by customers at their requested date, instead accumulating accounts to open in the next sales period to inflate profits. Another practice was called Pinning which was creating pin numbers without customer’s authorization, and attaching them to credit cards. Then employees would impersonate customers on Wells Fargo’s computers and use these pin numbers to create online banking and bills for customers. Finally, a practice called bundling was done where Wells Fargo employees would mislead customers saying that certain banking products were only available in bundles which forced customers to add more products than they wanted.

Until the intent or motive is recognized, a problem cannot be described or solved. This should be a major question to ask in the Wells Fargo case. Most workers, especially in sales and marketing jobs are known to be compensated and promoted based on their performances (number of products and services sold, number of set targets met). So it is possible that Wells Fargo compensation and promotion structure motivated these employees to engage in such fraudulent acts in order to boost their incentives and bonuses which was measured based on their performance. Because it is surprising that such huge number of employees would engage in such acts to cheat customers for a period of five years. Both former and current Wells Fargo employees told regulators that their motivation to open unauthorized accounts was because of the compensation policies and felt extreme pressure to do that to benefit from such policies (Corkery

In September of 2016, it was revealed that there was alleged misconduct at one of the largest and safest banking institutions in the United States. Wells Fargo Bank was ranked among the nation’s safest financial institutions according to an analysis done by Global Financial, (Inside Tucson Business, 2009). Alleging that between May 2011 and July 2015, there were more than 2 million bank accounts or credit cards opened for customers without their knowledge or permission (Blake, 2016). Clients started complaining the they were receiving debit/credit cards from the bank that they had not ordered. Wells Fargo employees also started complaining that about the unethical behaviors they witnessed or were asked to participate in to the Human Resource Departments, the bank’s internal ethics hotline, branch’s individual managers and supervisors. All which led to the discovery of the fraud scandal.

A Ponzi scheme is an illegal business practice in which new investor’s money is used to make payments to earlier investors. In many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors and to use for personal expenses, instead of engaging in any legitimate investment activity. The returns are repaid out of new investors’ principal, but not from profits. This can continue as long as new investors line up with cash, and old investors don’t try to withdraw too much of their money at once.

Bank of America is a banking and financial service industry located in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you would like to access the internet address for Bank of America, then you can click on this link provided https://www.bankofamerica.com . Its primary SIC Code is 6021 – National Commercial Banks, and its primary NAICS Code is 522110 – Commercial Banking. The Bank of American provides many goods and services for its customers such as banking, credit cards, loans, and investments. Every day Bank of America is competing against many competitors but JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are some of the largest. Bank of America’s stock exchange ticker symbol is NYSE: BAC. The external auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Charlotte, North Carolina.