Irving Rosenberg spent a lifetime building his savings. At age 90, with impaired hearing, limited mobility, and early-stage dementia, the Southern California man had no reason to think his $814,000 savings at Wells Fargo was at risk.
it was
Beginning last April, someone began forging Rosenberg’s signature on checks and opening his savings account. He never wrote a check from it. Withdrawals came quickly — several in a few weeks — and added up to $814,000. [1]
Rosenberg didn’t understand. Considering his health, he was not in that condition. “I was angry and frustrated,” he told ABC7 Los Angeles. “It took all my life savings … I was hurt.”
When Rosenberg realized what had happened, he called Wells Fargo for help. The bank opened an investigation – but offered little reassurance. “Research can go on forever,” he said. “That’s what they told me.”
Then came a letter: Wells Fargo was denying his fraudulent claim. A lot of time passed before he contacted the bank. The bank’s deposit agreement gives customers 60 days to report unauthorized transactions. Rosenberg, dealing with dementia, skin cancer, and almost total hearing loss, missed it.
His nephew David Satin, who had stepped in to help manage Rosenberg’s affairs, was shocked — especially when he saw the cashed checks. “If you look at all the checks that were written, none of them are even close to his signature, not even remotely close,” Satin told ABC7.
Satin pushed straight to the bank. “I said, ‘Wait a second. He’s 90 years old. He’s got a little bit of dementia. He can’t hear. He can barely walk. He’s got skin cancer. He’s not paying attention to things like this, and you’re not going to help him at all.'”
He also questioned why such large withdrawals — clustered over several weeks of affairs — weren’t flagged by Wells Fargo’s fraud system in the first place. But he got nowhere. The bank simply did not respond.
With nowhere else to turn, Satin contacted ABC7’s consumer advocacy team, 7 on your sideand asked for help.
Once the station started making inquiries, things quickly changed. “Since I contacted you, and you contacted them, they’ve contacted me at least five times,” Satin said, adding that the bank has been “more responsive.”
As the report was being finalized, the good news came: Wells Fargo reversed its decision and agreed to refund every dollar.
“After working with our client and their appointed power of attorney, and reviewing additional information, we are pleased to share that we are returning Mr. Rosenberg’s money to his account,” the bank said in a statement.
Rosenberg was relieved. “I thank Channel 7 … thank you,” he told the station. “I feel so much better. I’m able to sleep.”
Rosenberg’s case ended well — but probably only because the TV station was involved. There are several recent examples of elderly Wells Fargo customers experiencing the same thing.
In Dallas, 83-year-old Billy Young was stopped and cashed by a stranger. Wells Fargo denied her claim in May 2025, citing “untimely reporting”. [2] After WFAA aired her story, families nationwide flooded in with nearly identical experiences. [3] In Philadelphia, an elderly woman filed a lawsuit after losing $450,000 in a tech-support scam, alleging Wells Fargo let five wire transfers go through before anyone intervened. [4] And in January 2025, a FINRA panel ordered Wells Fargo to pay $3.4 million to the estate of a Georgia woman whose nieces exploited her while the bank ignored red flags. [5]
Wells Fargo has paid nearly $28 billion in fines since 2000. It ranks third among US megabanks, behind JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. [6] But unlike its peers, Wells Fargo has a relatively small Wall Street operation — ordinary Americans are its core business, which means those penalties hit close to home. In 2022, the CFPB ordered the bank to pay $3.7 billion for illegal activity affecting more than 16 million customers. [7] Director Rohit Chopra called it a “repeated cycle of breaking the law”.
Wells Fargo isn’t the only bank struggling with this. Financial institutions filed more than 680,000 suspicious activity reports related to check fraud in 2022 alone — nearly double the previous year, according to FinCen. [8] Total check fraud losses in the U.S. are estimated to reach $21 billion in 2023. [9] And seniors are absorbing the worst of it: FBI data shows that Americans over 60 reported $4.9 billion in fraud losses in 2024, up 43% from the previous year. [10] The actual toll, including unreported fraud, could reach $81.5 billion annually, according to the FTC. [11]
“This crime is not just financial,” said Kathy Stokes of the AARP Fraud Watch Network. [12] “Some people have everything taken from them, and they’ll still say the emotional impact is the hardest.”
Read more: The average net worth of Americans is a staggering $620,654. But it makes almost no sense. Here’s the number to calculate (and how to make it skyrocket)
The 60-day reporting deadline that nearly drowned Rosenberg’s claim is standard at many major banks — and creates a particular trap for older customers. The onus is entirely on the account holder to review the monthly statements and flag unauthorized transactions within that window. Remember, and the bank considers the matter closed. No exceptions, no questions asked.
Ask yourself: How confident are you that your 80-year-old parent is reviewing their bank statements each month?
Congress is trying to address it. Bilateral Economic Exploitation Prevention Act, [13] Reintroduced in 2025, it will allow financial institutions to delay suspicious transactions when they believe an elderly or disabled customer is being exploited. The House version passed the committee 50-0. [14]
Report immediately – and do so in writing. Flag suspicious transactions the moment you find them and follow up by letter or email. Keep a copy of everything. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, victims of check fraud technically have up to a year to file a claim, although the bank’s internal deadline is shorter.
File with regulators and law enforcement. Report to your local police, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov), and the CFPB (consumerfinance.gov). A CFPB complaint, in particular, could pressure banks to take a second look at denied claims.
Set up account alerts before something goes wrong. Many banks offer free notifications for large withdrawals and new check activity. If you’re helping an elderly relative manage their finances, enable those alerts on your own phone.
Designate a trusted contact and consider a power of attorney. A trusted contact creates a safety net without giving that person control of the account. A durable power of attorney goes further—it allows a family member to step in and act before damage is done. It eventually helped Rosenberg’s family, but by the time Satin got involved, the money was already gone.
If your claim is denied, escalate. Rosenberg’s and Young’s cases both show that initial rejections are not always the final word. Request an oversight review, get your state attorney general’s office involved, and don’t underestimate local media consumer advocacy teams — they were the turning point in both stories.
Ditch paper checks. With check fraud at epidemic levels, switching to electronic payments is one of the simplest ways to protect yourself and the people you care about.
The fact that it took a TV investigation to return $814,000 to a major bank in apparently forged checks speaks volumes in itself.
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Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and reliable third-party reporting. For details, see our Editorial ethics and guidelines*.*
ABC7 Los Angeles (1); WFAA Dallas (2); WFAA Dallas (3); Top Class Actions (4); Financial Planning (5); Violation Tracker (6); CFPB (7); FinCEN (8); Nasdaq Global Financial Crime Report (9); FBI/IC3 (10); CNBC (11); AARP (12); Congress.gov (13); CNBC (14)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
