So it looks like Wells Fargo is the latest big bank to come under fire for doing shitty, illegal things to millions of people. Federal regulators have revealed that the company's employees created more than two million fraudulent bank and credit card accounts in order to meet quotas.

But don't worry, the CEO knew nothing. Unlike most financial scandals, the root cause of the bad behavior here is immediately familiar to anyone who's had to work at a big box retail store. If you force salespeople to move "memberships" in order to keep their job, then they'll find a way to move those memberships, even if they have to forge applications from fictional characters like Harry Potter or Dwight D. The pressure to break the rules comes from unreasonable corporate expectations, but corporate never has to ask employees directly to break the law, so they stay safe.

Kristen started her banking career as an employee of a Wachovia branch in Tallahassee, Florida, land of either crocodiles or alligators. We can't remember which. Inher branch was taken over by Wells Fargo.

Based on their ads, they're apparently the bank of choice for old-timey American settlers.

Wells Fargo Some of us prefer our banking without mounds of horseshit, but to each their own. Wells Fargo's folksy demeanor didn't extend past the ads. The first innovation they brought to the table was a change of terms: They call all their physical buildings stores. But under Wells Fargo's rein, clients were now customers, and all that mattered was signing them up for more "solutions," like a Wells Fargo debit card, or a credit card, or online banking.

The first material change Kristen noticed came when Wells Fargo installed little pay pads at every teller station and instituted a new rule requiring customers to swipe their debit card before they even greeted a teller. But now, that longtime customer was nothing but a potential upsell opportunity.

Sure you don't want a loan or a credit card with your Social Security, grandma? At this point, you can't afford not too. Think about your toastless grandchildren. The next big change they instituted was roughly doubling the number of daily meetings between managers and bankers. Bankers were pressured to have new sales to report every couple of hours, which was made harder by the fact that a lot of their sales time was spent reporting on sales.

So my manager would race in at 2: Bad sales were punished by forced attendance at 7 a.

Another way Wells Fargo punished their employees was with "sales nights," aka "several hours of cold-calling random people after the close of business. Wells Fargo, seemingly inspired by pyramid schemes like CutCo, Amway, and the Girl Scouts of America, decided that making their bankers "sell" to friends and family was a perfect strategy.

At one point, Kristen and her co-workers were given a winter break assignment to directly edgesforextendedlayout reference accounts to loved ones during the holidays.

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That was the purpose of our holiday It didn't matter if they were funded or not. And yes, Kristen's work experience at one of the world's largest banks DOES sound an awful lot like working for a pyramid scheme. I spent every subsequent holiday, family get-together, and social event doing the same. Wells Fargo "Merry Christmas! Now sign that snowman up for a checking account, or your ass is grass.

All that mattered was selling more solutions to more customers. Hull options trading soon found herself pushing every customer to apply for a credit card, whether or not they wanted one. Even though "most of our clients tended to have a lower credit score on average," she'd run the applications. They weren't able to successfully manage a checking account. It didn't matter that none of these people would get approved for their credit cards; the applications showed she was trying, trading pro system plus kept Kristen's bosses off her back for a little while.

What she was doing wasn't technically illegal, because the customer did agree to send in the application. But that question was worked into the whole account creation process, like a Trojan horse of financial ruin.

Kristen doesn't think most customers exchange rates jpy to sgd understood what was happening: Others would get the email to activate their debit card online and ignore it, like you do. The constant pressure to sell more "solutions" made this absolutely maddening for bankers: Kristen insists that she never engaged in this behavior, but she saw it and "can see" why some employees felt pressured to do this, even though "it's totally identity theft.

And there was more identity theft to come. Kristen explained, "Some elderly customers didn't trust computers and absolutely refused to set up online banking.

In order to avoid how do you get your cash back on wells fargo credit card unpleasant call, "many bankers would resort to impersonating their customers and input fake email addresses.

Just something super basic that would never actually exist out there on the web, like noname wellsfargo. The customer would have no idea this happened. That's full-on identity theft. Wells Fargo "LOL, jk!

Another illegal practice that began to flourish was "sandbagging. First off, this meant new customers weren't able to use any money they'd barclays forex rates until the account was opened.

And second, it meant pages of their private information xforex forum philippines on paper applications sort of sat around until the sale went through. Wells Fargo screwed over a lot of their customers, sure.

But the bank's greatest crime data entry work from home in udaipur be what it did to its hourly how do you get your cash back on wells fargo credit card It turned me into a monster. Yes, even the 5, employees Wells Fargo fired are victims. Remember, these aren't executives who made millions gambling with other people's money.

These are normal people who were forced to make a choice between "unethical behavior" and "continuing to pay rent. But Wells Fargo fired the shit out of any employees who complained internally.

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Bankers who needed a paycheck were forced to broaden their moral compasses and live with the guilt. It was all I thought about. I hated it so much.

You were stressed out all the time If someone breathed a word that they needed an account, you were on them like a rabid dog. Sociologists call this "normalization of deviance. Wells Fargo executives made sure deviant behavior was the only way to get non-catastrophic results. Employees like Kristen were forced to either quit their jobs, get fired, or screw over their customers. Deviant behavior became normal behavior without so much as one incriminating email from an executive demanding an underling break the law.

They got fired, while the real culprits got taxpayer-subsidized bonuses. CBS Money Watch Oh, right.

Every single time this happens. Kristen now works as a freelance writer, not a banker. She has a websitea Twittera a Facebook and an Instagram. She's also got an Amazon author page here.

Robert Evans just has a book, A Brief History of Viceabout his experiences re-creating strange ancient drugs. Cracked is a Scripps company brand. Login or Register Username. Don't make me do this again. I Worked For Wells Fargo: They Made Us Do Some Shady Sh! Browse By After Hours The Stumbling Dead Antiheroes Adventures in Jedi School Rom.

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