Mexican immigrants who speak little English.

Older adults with memory problems.

College students opening their first bank accounts.

Small-business owners with several lines of credit.

Some of the customers whom bankers at Wells Fargo targeted for unauthorized or unnecessary accounts - when trying to meet steep sales goals and avoid being fired. 

According to legal filings and statements from former bank employees:

Kevin Pham, who worked at branch in San Jose, CA:  "The analogy I use was that it was like lions hunting zebras. They would look for the weakest, the ones that would put up the least resistance.”

Ricky Hansen, Jr., who managed a branch in Scottsdale, AZ:  Members of a local Native American community would arrive like clockwork every three months with checks for their share of the community’s casino revenue. It was then that some bankers would try to dupe them into opening unnecessary accounts laden with fees.

In California, it was people with identification cards issued by Mexican consulates. The absence of a Social Security number made it simpler for Wells employees to open fraudulent accounts in those customers’ names. Wells Fargo is one of the few major banks to permit accounts to be opened without SSNs.