90-year-old man scammed out of $814K life savings — Wells Fargo denies claim. Why you must always flag big withdrawals

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

It was.

Starting last April, someone began forging Rosenberg’s signature on checks and draining his savings account. He’d never written a single check from it. The withdrawals came fast — many over just a few weeks — and added up to $814,000. [1]

Rosenberg didn’t catch it. Given his health, he wasn’t in a position to. “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 looking for help. The bank opened an investigation — but offered little reassurance. “An investigation could go forever,” he said. “That’s what they told me.”

Then came a letter: Wells Fargo was denying his fraud claim. Too much time had passed before he’d 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 stunned — especially after looking at the cashed checks. “If you look at all the checks that were written, none of them even have close to his signature, not even remotely close,” Satin told ABC7.

Satin pushed back with the bank directly. “I said, ‘Wait a second. He’s 90. He’s got a little bit of dementia. He can’t hear. He can barely walk. He’s got skin cancer. He’s not noticing these kinds of things, and you guys have no help at all for him.'”

He also questioned why such massive withdrawals — many clustered in a matter of weeks — were never flagged by Wells Fargo’s fraud systems in the first place. But he wasn’t getting anywhere. The bank simply wasn’t responding.

With nowhere left to turn, Satin contacted ABC7’s consumer advocacy team, 7 On Your Side, and asked for help.

Once the station began making inquiries, things changed quickly. “Since I contacted you, and you contacted them, they’ve contacted me at least five times,” Satin said, adding that the bank had become “way 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 customer and their designated Power of Attorney, and reviewing additional information, we are pleased to share that we are returning Mr. Rosenberg’s money back to his account,” the bank said in a statement.

Rosenberg was relieved. “I thank Channel 7 for doing that … thank you,” he told the station. “I feel much better. I’m able to sleep.”

Rosenberg’s case ended well — but likely only because a TV station got involved. There are several recent examples of elderly Wells Fargo customers experiencing the same thing.

In Dallas, 83-year-old Billie Young had a check intercepted 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 sued after losing $450,000 to 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 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 those penalties hit closer to home. In 2022, the CFPB ordered the bank to pay $3.7 billion for illegal activity affecting over 16 million customers, [7] with Director Rohit Chopra calling it a “rinse-repeat cycle of violating 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 prior year — according to FinCEN. [8] Total check fraud losses in the Americas hit an estimated $21 billion in 2023. [9] And seniors are absorbing the worst of it: FBI data shows Americans over 60 reported $4.9 billion in fraud losses in 2024, up 43% from the year before. [10] The FTC estimates the true toll, including unreported fraud, may reach $81.5 billion annually. [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 surprising $620,654. But it almost means nothing. Here’s the number that counts (and how to make it skyrocket)

The 60-day reporting deadline that nearly sank Rosenberg’s claim is standard across most major banks — and it creates a particular trap for elderly customers. The burden falls entirely on the account holder to review monthly statements and flag unauthorized transactions within that window. Miss it, 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 every month?

Congress is attempting to address this. The bipartisan Financial Exploitation Prevention Act, [13] reintroduced in 2025, would let financial institutions delay suspicious transactions when they believe an elderly or disabled customer is being exploited. The House version passed committee 50–0. [14]

Report immediately — and do it 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, check fraud victims technically have up to one year to file a claim, even if 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, 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 relative’s finances, enable those alerts on your own phone.

Designate a trusted contact and consider power of attorney. A trusted contact creates a safety net without giving that person account control. A durable financial power of attorney goes further — it lets a family member step in and act before the damage is done. That’s ultimately what 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 denials aren’t always the final word. Request a supervisor review, involve your state attorney general’s office, 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 get a major bank to return $814,000 in obviously forged checks says plenty on its own.

Join 200,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.

—

Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible 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.