Consumer complaint received 2024-01-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: ID
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Money order, traveler's check or cashier's check
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, we were victims of wire fraud ( for a purchase of a home in XXXX, ID ) that resulted in the loss of {$470000.00} from our personal bank account. This was a cash-sale of a home and there was no bank loan officer involved. The wire fraud happened via " fake emails '' from the escrow officer and realtor. We were emailed wire instructions from what appeared to be a legitimate XXXX XXXX email. The emails consisted of conversations with the realtor, wire instructions, and a receipt of payment. The emails and wire instructions had the correct address, company name, logo, escrow officers signature and our specific case number on all documentation. The documentation had our personal information on documents as well. ( The documentation had our case # XXXX on it, which I believe is a number assigned to our case by XXXX XXXX. ) There were no grammatical, spelling, or punctual errors in the correspondence on the documents, it was presented in a very professional manner. 
We were not notified of the wire fraud until XXXX XXXX -- 5 days after the event, when the escrow officer noticed that the money was not deposited into XXXX XXXX account. This was an alarming situation considering I had been texting her the day I wired the money. The texts consisted of me asking her the amount I needed to transfer and that I had sent the money and emailed her a confirmation. The escrow officer didnt notice that someone was hacking her or pretending to be her via email and asking us to send our money before the sale of the home. In her years of experience, I find it very lazy and negligent that this didnt raise alarm that I was texting about how much money to wire at least 8 days before we closed on the home. 
Our money has not been fully recovered and we do have some concerns we would like to address about the situation. 
We do not feel that XXXX XXXX and the representative for XXXX XXXX kept our situation confidential. According to your privacy policies and practices, XXXX XXXX is committed to respecting the privacy of their customers, but there were numerous occasions after this incident where we would be talked about by local banks, other title companies and even a couple realtors. It was uncomfortable and humiliating for us. We do feel that XXXX XXXX is guilty of sharing non-public information about us. 
The escrow officer who was responsible for our account had been texting me while I was wiring the funds ( to what ended up being a fraudulent account ). Is there a standard practice of operations for texting a client and not following through when money is wired? It was 5 days after we wired the funds that the agent finally reached out and mentioned she never sent wire transfer information and asked me where I sent the money? I do believe this an act of negligence and that if she had been paying attention, maybe we could have recovered our stolen money. By the time we were notified that all the conversations via email and transactions were fraudulent, the money had been dispersed to multiple banks and payment methods. 
The scammer that submitted the fake wiring instructions had our XXXX XXXX case number for the purchase of the home along with a lot of our personal information that came from XXXX XXXX. Is this not a breach of information on XXXX XXXX behalf? How did the scammer get our information and case number? This is a case number assigned by the title company. I have enclosed the fake wire instructions with XXXX XXXX logo, company header, and our case number on the documentation. 
We do feel that XXXX XXXX is at fault for the negligence of keeping our information safe, not reporting valuable information within a timely manner and disregard when it came to following up on a large sum of money being sent to the escrow company. 

In addition to the Escrow Company being negligent, we are having a hard time contacting Citibank regarding the funds that they put on hold from the thief of our money. 

After law enforcement was notified, they found our money was deposited into a Citibank account where the money was distributed via cashier 's checks, money orders, and other accounts. When the Deputy assigned to our case notified Citibank, they said that they were working on getting as much money re-called as possible. We are still waiting on communication regarding the money orders that were sent overseas. They had also put a freeze on the account holders ' account because it still had some of our money in it. We did get back some of the money but we are still waiting on {$180000.00} to be returned back to us. Last communication with Citibank ( through the Deputy ) was them waiting for cashier 's checks and a XXXX XXXX Account to credit the funds back to them to redistribute to our account. 

Any information would be greatly appreciated..

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation