Irving Rosenberg spent a lifetime building his savings. At 90, with hearing problems, limited mobility and early-stage dementia, the Southern California man had no reason to think his $814,000 in Wells Fargo savings was at risk.

it was

Beginning last April, someone began forging Rosenberg’s signature on checks and drained his savings account. I had never written a single check for it. Withdrawals came quickly, many within weeks, totaling $814,000. (1)

Rosenberg didn’t get it. Given his health, he was not in a position to do so. “I was angry and frustrated,” he told ABC7 Los Angeles. “It cost me all my life savings … I got hurt.”

When Rosenberg realized what had happened, he called Wells Fargo for help. The bank opened an investigation, but offered little assurance. “An investigation could take forever,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been told.”

Then a letter arrived: Wells Fargo was denying its claim of fraud. Too much time had 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 near-total hearing loss, had missed it.

His nephew David Satin, who had stepped in to help manage Rosenberg’s affairs, was shocked, especially after looking at the cashed checks. “If you look at all the checks that were written, none of them even have his signature, not even that far,” Satin told ABC7.

Satin pushed right back with 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 doesn’t realize these kinds of things, and you guys have no help for him.'”

He also questioned why Wells Fargo’s fraud systems never flagged these massive withdrawals, many clustered within a matter of weeks, in the first place. But it was getting nowhere. The bank simply did not respond.

With nowhere to turn, Satin reached out to ABC7’s consumer advocacy team, 7 By your sideand asked for help.

Once the station started making inquiries, things changed quickly. “Since I contacted you and you contacted them, I’ve been contacted at least five times,” Satin said, adding that the bank had become “much more responsive.”

As the report was being finalized, the good news came: Wells Fargo reversed its decision and agreed to return every dollar.

“After working with our client and his designated 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 for doing this … thank you,” he told the broadcaster. “I feel much better. I can sleep.”

Rosenberg’s case ended well, but probably only because a television network got involved. There are several recent examples of older Wells Fargo customers experiencing the same thing.

In Dallas, Billie Young, 83, had a check intercepted and cashed by a stranger. Wells Fargo denied its claim in May 2025, citing “untimely reports.” (2) After WFAA aired her story, families across the country flooded in with nearly identical experiences. (3) In Philadelphia, an elderly woman sued after losing $450,000 to a tech support scam, alleging that 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 racked up nearly $28 billion in penalties since 2000. That ranks it third among U.S. 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 these penalties hit closer to home. In 2022, the CFPB ordered the bank to pay $3.7 billion for illegal activities affecting more than 16 million customers (7), and director Rohit Chopra called it a “repeat rinse cycle of law violation.”

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 Americas hit an estimated $21 billion by 2023. (9) And seniors are taking the brunt 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 FTC estimates that the actual toll, including unreported fraud, may be as high as $81.5 billion annually. (11)

“This crime is not just financial,” said Kathy Stokes of the AARP Fraud Watch Network. (12) “Some people have taken everything out of them and still say the emotional impact is the hardest.”

Read more: The average net worth of Americans is a staggering $620,654. But it hardly means anything. Here’s the number that counts (and how to make it pop)

The 60-day reporting deadline that nearly sank Rosenberg’s claim is standard at most major banks, and creates a particular trap for large customers. The onus is entirely on the account holder to review monthly statements and flag unauthorized transactions within this window. He loses, and the bank considers the matter closed. No exceptions, no questions asked.

Ask yourself: How confident are you that your 80-year-old father checks his bank statements each month?

Congress is trying to fix it. The bipartisan Financial Exploitation Prevention Act, (13) reintroduced in 2025, would 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 in writing. Flag suspicious transactions the moment you spot them and follow up by letter or email. Keep copies of everything. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, victims of check fraud technically have up to a year to file a claim, even if the bank’s internal deadline is shorter.

File with regulators and law enforcement. Contact your local police, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov), and the CFPB (consumerfinance.gov). A CFPB complaint, in particular, can pressure banks to take a second look at denied claims.

Set up account alerts before anything goes wrong. Most banks offer free notifications for large withdrawals and new check activity. If you’re helping manage an elderly family member’s finances, turn on these alerts on your 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 the damage is done. That’s what ultimately helped Rosenberg’s family, but by the time Satin got involved, the money was gone.

If your claim is denied, escalate. The cases of Rosenberg and Young show that initial denials are not always the last word. Request a supervisor review, get the state attorney general’s office involved, and don’t underestimate the local media’s consumer advocacy teams — they were the tipping point in both stories.

Eliminate paper checks. With check fraud at epidemic levels, switching to electronic payments is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself and the people you care about.

The fact that it took a televised investigation to get a major bank to return $814,000 in obviously forged checks speaks volumes for itself.

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Sources of articles

We only rely on verified sources and credible third-party reports. For more information, see our ethics and editorial guidelines*.*

ABC7 Los Angeles (1); WFAA Dallas (2); WFAA Dallas (3); First class shares (4); Financial planning (5); Violation tracking (6); CFPB (7); FinCEN (8); Nasdaq Global Financial Crime Report (9); FBI/IC3 (10); CNBC (11); AARP (12); Congress.gov (13); CNBC (14)

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