A Texas megachurch pastor claims he and his family were defrauded of more than $18,000 by scammers pretending to be Wells Fargo employees, who reportedly had inexplicable access to their personal banking information.
Pastor Brian McAnally, who serves as spiritual formation pastor at Grace Fellowship near Houston, said Wells Fargo did not restore the money stolen from his bank account and initially dismissed his story, according to local FOX 26.
McAnally claimed that after they successfully stole his money, the scammers mocked him and made him listen to them have sex over the phone when he called them back.
Wells Fargo did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment by the time of publication, but told the local outlet that it has reopened an investigation into the pastor’s situation.
McAnally’s wife was first deceived by a July 30 text message from someone claiming to be a Wells Fargo fraud investigator, who asked about a supposed suspicious $4,000 transaction at a Bass Pro Shop in Miami, Florida.
“She responded with one word: no,” he said. “They called her immediately, presenting themselves as the Wells Fargo fraud detection services team.”
McAnally said they were more easily fooled into transferring their balance to an Apple Card because the scammers already had private information regarding their accounts, even though they had not been given their login information. The caller, who already had full control of their account, reportedly informed them of another fraudulent $5,000 charge in Miami.
“They had full access to our account at this point,” he said. “They had never asked her for her username or password.”
McAnally said the scammers “led us through the process” of loading up an Apple Cash card, assuring them their funds would be secure until moved to a new Wells Fargo account. Instead, the perpetrators drained more than $18,000 from their accounts and abruptly ended the call.
“They loaded the card, and then they drained the card,” he said.
When McAnally called them back, they first claimed to be someone from Walmart customer service.
Confused, he hung up and redialed, only to reach someone identifying as part of Wells Fargo’s fraud team, who then laughed at him before “getting very lewd and even vulgar,” which he confirmed to FOX 26 involved them having sex with the phone on.
“I think that they were just very enthusiastic about having defrauded us, and were just celebrating that and rubbing our faces in it,” McAnally said.
When he reached out to Wells Fargo, the pastor said the bank at first didn’t believe him.
“They said to us multiple times, ‘Well, what happened to you is impossible,'” he said of Wells Fargo’s response. “Well, I’m telling you it was very possible, and it happened to us.”
McAnally told the outlet he has dedicated three decades to ministry and believes his path to ministry was divinely influenced. “Almost 30 years ago, I couldn’t deny it. God was calling me to serve people in local churches, so I said yes,” he said.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
