When you have money stolen from you, it’s pretty easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do. This is especially true when the one stealing the money from you is the bank itself.
Surprisingly, this is more common than one might expect, depending on how one defines “theft.” If we’re taking a looser approach, banks have gotten away with imposing all sorts of fees on customers for decades. From charging you for running out of money to charging you for using an ATM to even simply charging you for having an account, banks are more than comfortable making you foot the bill for whatever they want.
If we’re taking a more literal definition of theft—as in, banks directly taking money from you—this also happens, though it’s both less frequent and mostly accidental. Still, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has multiple reports of people trying to get money out of an ATM, having the money debited from their account, and then never receiving the cash.
In both of the CFPB cases, the person experiencing the issue had trouble finding a resolution with their bank. Now, a user on TikTok says he’s developed a surefire method for stopping this sort of issue in its tracks.
How Did This ATM User Get His Money Back?
TikTok user Max (@mr_max_music) explains how he was able to get his money back after it was stolen by an ATM. All it took was a few phone calls. His video on the matter has over 1.8 million views.
According to Max, he recently had his money stolen from a Wells Fargo ATM. He says he called the company to get the money back. And the bank attempted to send him through to a customer service line.
“I said, ‘You know what? F— you. That’s not going to work,’” he recalls.
And so, he claims that he called the police. He reported what he dubs a “reverse bank robbery.”
He says he then called Wells Fargo again and told it, “’Hey, I’m charging you overdraft fees for the money that you took from me. And also, I’m charging you 29.99% APR. Please pay that, or I’m calling collections subject to my terms and conditions.’”
“They give me my money back real f—— quick,” he adds.
He Follows Up
In a follow-up video, Max provides further context as to what happened.
In short, Max used an ATM to deposit money, only to find that money had not been credited to his account. When he confronted Wells Fargo about the issue, he claims they directed him to a customer service line. Knowing this could be a tactic to get him to give up—and coming on the heels of a recent small claims court win—Max says he felt emboldened to push the issue.
“I was like, ‘You know what? This is f—— bulls—. Like, if I f—– up in this way, if my computer malfunctioned and overdrafted some money out of my account, they would have charged me fees. They would have been up my a–,’” he recalls. “So I said screw it. And I did call the police.”
He says the police informed him that it was a civil matter. However, he was still given an incident number. And he says he used that as a tool to “badger” Wells Fargo into an investigation and response, using the police report and threats of small claims court as “leverage.”
He Gets His Money Back
Eventually, he says, the company caved and returned his money.
“I guess the reason I’m explaining this is a lot of people think that there’s no recourse against corporations who abuse their power,” he states. He later adds, “If you don’t accept [their] frame. And you just say, ‘F— you. I’m not doing that s—.’ And you know how to back it up to an extent, there’s a good chance they’re gonna pay you out.”
In an email to BroBible, Max offered some more specifics.
“The ATM ate my money on 8/14. I called the police on 8/18, and I received my refund on 8/20. Initially, the bank told me it would take 10 business days. But once I informed them that I had filed a police report and was prepared to take them to small claims court, they escalated the case to their Executive Office. At that point, it was resolved in just one business day,” he explained.
“I was fully prepared to file a lawsuit in small claims court,” he added. “I had recently sued AT&T in small claims over some serious issues—and won—so I was already in a ‘don’t take crap from corporations’ mindset. That experience taught me exactly how to navigate the process, so I was confident and ready to do the same here.”
Bringing the police in, he says, changed everything.
“The employees at the branch gave me a vague response along the lines of, ‘You can do what you want; we can’t stop you from taking action,’” he recounted. “But the Customer Service representatives immediately changed their tone. They became more serious, took detailed notes, and said they would escalate the issue to a higher level.”
Were These Threats Really Enforceable?
As nice as it would be to be able to impose fees on banks that have money-stealing ATMs, one’s ability to actually do that is fairly limited.
If an ATM “eats” your cash—as in, it fails to dispense, dispenses less, or takes a deposit but doesn’t credit it—the official process is to call the bank and file a claim. They are legally required to investigate under Regulation E. If this process takes too long, one can escalate the issue with a regulatory authority like the CFPB.
As this is a fairly standard procedure, calling the police generally doesn’t help immediately resolve the issue, nor can one suddenly impose fees to which the bank has not agreed.
That said, the involvement of police and Max’s unwillingness to simply comply with the bank’s requests may have led them to act faster in returning his money.
@mr_max_music Fight the power 💪 #corporation #wellsfargo #wellsfargosucks #millennialsoftiktok
Commenters Love It
In the comments section, many users loved the “fight the power” spirit embodied by Max, with many telling their own similar stories.
“My buddy stood at the teller window at his bank with a full lobby of customers and called the police. the teller asked him what he was doing. in the loudest voice possible, he said I’m calling the police and reporting you for theft. isn’t that what you do when someone steals from you?” recalled a user. “All the unreversable fees he was disputing immediately became reversible.”
“My electric company wouldn’t fix an error they made on my bill so I requested that they mail me every single thing I was allowed to request. They fixed it in 10 minutes,” added another.
“As a former banker I. LOVE THIS. This needs to happen cause the the bank is trying to scam u its all in the plan,” declared a third.
‘Fight Back’
In his email, Max closed by noting what he wanted the message of his videos to be.
“I’d encourage people not to just accept mistreatment from corporations. You can fight back, and win, if you’re persistent and see through their tactics. Many people assume corporations follow the law, but in reality, they often break it brazenly and in ways that are easy to prove. For example, when I sued AT&T, their legal rep tried to argue that the Terms and Conditions I signed meant I couldn’t sue them under any circumstance, in ‘any universe’ etc. etc. The judge literally rolled his eyes at how absurd that was and ruled in my favor,” he shared.
“Don’t let corporations intimidate you, know your rights, learn what buttons to push and realize the legal process (especially in small claims court) is looser than you think,” Max stated. “Often it just comes down to convincing a judge that you are in the right — this tends to be relatively easy because corporations operate like bloodthirsty sociopaths in many cases.”
BroBible reached out to Wells Fargo via email.