Did Wells Fargo target seniors with its bogus-account scheme?

Wanita Holmes

Wells Fargo may have gone out if its way to take senior citizens to the cleaners when the bank’s workers fraudulently opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers’ permission.

At least that’s the suspicion of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

They’ve called upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to determine whether seniors in particular were preyed upon because older Wells Fargo customers may have been more susceptible to manipulation or likely visited branches more frequently than tech-savvy younger people who prefer online banking.

“As Wells Fargo begins the long process of identifying and making restitution to the consumers who were defrauded, I want to ensure that seniors — who are often the targets of fraud and who also can be harder to find and make whole — are adequately protected,” McCaskill said.

She and Collins said in a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray that they’re concerned about “the impact this activity has had on our nation’s senior population, especially those who do not conduct their financial business on the Internet.”

Hancock Park resident Wanita Holmes, 87, says what happened to her validates the senators’ interest.

She’s been a Wells Fargo customer since her old Crocker National Bank account was transferred when Wells acquired Crocker in 1986. Holmes told me she was perfectly happy with the service she received after the merger.  (Click to continue)

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Did Wells Fargo target seniors with its bogus-account scheme?