Billie Young, an 83-year-old Dallas resident, found that a check she had written to pay off her car loan was cashed by someone other than her finance company.
“$14,952.52. Never will forget it,” Young told WFAA.
Young was later informed by her bank that she had failed to meet the 30-day deadline for filing a claim. The distressing situation began two years ago.
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In August 2024, Young issued two checks, one for her electric bill and the other for paying off her car. So, when her utility company later sent a notice of service cutoff, Young contacted Wells Fargo on September 6, 2024, a date she noted in her checkbook.
“This was way before 30 days,” she said.
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According to Young, the Wells Fargo representative informed her that the check intended for the electric bill had not yet cleared.
“I said, ‘Well, put a stop payment on that one,’” she recounted.
Young stated that she informed the banker of the intended recipient of the second check. She noted that while he confirmed the check had cleared, he failed to disclose that it had been cashed by someone other than the person to whom it was addressed.
The following month, Young realized something was wrong when she received a bill from her car lender.
“So now I’m upset at my car dealer because the money came out of my account,” she said.
However, it was only after Young received a copy of the cashed check that she realized the payee’s name had been changed to an unfamiliar person.
Online records identify the name on the check as belonging to a local credit analyst. It remains uncertain if this individual was the one who actually cashed the check.
Several weeks passed before Young realized her check had been fraudulently cashed. She filed a fraud complaint with the bank in mid-October 2024, but it was denied.
She and her granddaughter, Kecia Byars, have since been working to right the situation. On her grandmother’s behalf, Byars sent letters to Wells Fargo in an attempt to recover the lost funds.
“To them, she’s just another customer, but to me, she’s my grandmother,” her granddaughter, Byars, remarked. “It’s been very sad, and more so to see we can’t get through a bank visit without her vomiting or being in tears,” Byars added.
The family also reported the incident to the Dallas Police Department.
Young provided WFAA with a copy of the account statement. The statement was limited to listing the check number and the corresponding amount, as the name of the person who ultimately cashed the check was omitted.
Young noted that her signature on the check appeared to have been altered, a change she couldn’t account for.
According to Byars, the individual who initially tried to cash the check was turned away by one bank due to suspicion of fraud. However, the check was eventually cashed at a different bank.
Byars emphasized the necessity for Wells Fargo to reevaluate its policies, especially concerning its elderly clientele.
Young, a customer of Wells Fargo since 1996, has now closed her account following the incident.
For the past three years, she has been the sole caregiver for her husband, a Navy veteran who is battling prostate cancer.
She emphasized the immense personal strain, stating, “At the time this hit me in 2024. 2024. I had to do everything for my husband. Everything.”
In a letter dated May 2025, Wells Fargo wrote that under the deposit account agreement, “the customer is responsible for reviewing their monthly account statements and letting us know within 30 days about any errors or unauthorized transactions. The claim will remain denied, and we will not reimburse you for the disputed transactions.”
However, in a recent response to the case, Wells Fargo stated that it is currently reviewing the matter.
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