Consumer complaint received 2021-07-23
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
Attention : Citi ERU ( Branded Cards & Non-Branded Cards XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, Best Buy and Home Depot ) Attention : Master Card ID Protection Attention : Citi Ethics Concerns The attached is a disgusting letter and it still has not addressed the CAUSE that led to the problems. Its quite obvious the agent assigned to the non-store accounts ( XXXX ) has some sort of bias applied to my cases. On the other hand, there is a new case opened as of yesterday on the store account by an investigator ( XXXX  ). Unfortunately, XXXX does not understand, nor does she believe in Identity Theft. Thats really too bad as I would not wish it upon my worst enemy. In her letter from today she again does not address some very important details.

1. I am the victim of ID Theft that began in XXXX as documented by the police report regarding the theft of my computer at that time 2. Though I did everything in my power to protect my family from any issues, fraud, etc. it appears all for naught. The crooks broke into my information and stole the most precious data they could ; including my familys Social Security numbers, our birth certificates, our drivers licenses and of course our passports as well. 
3. What XXXX neglects to understand is that they also found my card data in computer bag or on the completer instelf, since I dont go out with everything when I am out of town. She tends to believe that she is righteous though she hasnt even provided the common courtesy to call me and discuss. On the other hand, XXXX has and he is getter the right information from the real XXXX XXXX where XXXX is believing information from a fraudster that is not the real XXXX XXXX. 
4. XXXX, in turn called me on XX/XX/XXXX to advise me that he was reopening all cases because there were obvious issues that were not taken into account ; namely the ID Theft and therefore Account Take over leading to the fraud in XXXX and XXXX for starters. 
5. Remember I have submitted proof that I was in XXXX XXXX on Company assignment from XXXX so it would have been very difficult for me to buy any gift cards of any sort at any target, etc. during that time period, which is when al of this took place. REMARKABLE! ( see flight itineraries from XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX as well as the letter from XXXX ( Formerly XXXX ) about a call I made with the XXXX County Sheriffs Office on XX/XX/XXXX. Its quite evident I was not in town via both of those declared statements. 
6. XXXX, who has never actually called me to rationally discuss anything has been reading notes and/or reviewing calls from fraudsters. How one could actually believe that I would call from XXXX XXXX, which has been proven by my cell letter and the flight itineraries boggles the mind. XXXX is either reading notes given from the fraudsters or listening to calls made by the fraudsters. She simply does not get it and this case needs to be completely reassigned to a non-biased investigator that actually understands ID Theft and Account Takeover that leads to other types of fraud, including gift cards and bounced ACH payments made by fraudsters from account that have nothing to do with myself and/or family. So far, I have supplied proof from XXXX XXXX that I dont have any records with them for any accounts now or in the far-reaching past. XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  have now confirmed the same so all of your ACH bonces are fraudulent and were not from myself or my family. I will have these during this coming week and will supply once received. ( see XXXX XXXX info attached ) 7. I was not in the US between XXXX so going to Target, etc. during this time frame is not at all possible. Id have to be superhuman to have been in XXXX XXXX working and in XXXX at the same time. Never mind in XXXX where XXXX has verified calls came from while I was out of country. Even then, XXXX is Thousands of miles from XXXX and it would have been impossible for me to be in a XXXX Target during that time. But, alas, I was in XXXX XXXX and did not make the calls XXXX references on XX/XX/XXXX to Citis Customer Service Department. This is all a big fat fraud and XXXX is allowing it to happen to a very good customer, citizen and family. XXXX needs to be retrained in ID Theft, Account Take over, Fraud and ACH bounced payments.

8. Additionally, I supplied two letters this past week. One pertained to closing my Best Buy Account in XXXX because I was not pleased with a small charge, appearing to be fraud, that Citi marked as late. Rather than fight this and waste the time we have with this issue, we paid it and disputed it. Citi did nothing and we moved on. This Best Buy account should never been open and Citi CREATED FRAUD THAT SHOULD NOT EVEN HAVE HAD AN OPEN ACCOUNT. What kind of protection for customers is Citi doing, NONE? The second letter pertains to a letter I sent in XXXX advising not to take any 3rd party payments from anyone, unless authorized in writing by myself. This didnt happen of course and Citi began taking payments by a person who had stolen my familys identity and taken over my accounts. How is this Citi? Why did you go against my requirement? Are you really that bad at updating customer accounts properly? Wow, that letter was 10 years ago and seeing that none this type of fraud had taken place I thought you heard me and did as I required! You didnt though and you opened the door to even more gift card fraud and 3rd party payments as time went along. How shameful!

9. On or about XX/XX/XXXX our community mailboxes were hit by mail fraud ( see pictures attached ). While asking my wife for the mail key at the beginning of May she advised that they had been broken into and all mail was stolen from all residents! I let Citi know of this at the time but still it does not seem to resonate with XXXX at all. In this case, there were a new set of fraudsters XXXX amazing ). Citi allowed one of these fraudsters to make a purchase from XXXX Florida from a Company called XXXX XXXX XXXX. Well as I have said, first I live in XXXX, not XXXX Florida so that Card could not have been present. Second, I dont smoke, I am an XXXX and dont condone smoking either. Finally, I dont own a smoke shop, nor do I distribute any smoking paraphernalia. Also, this charge is exactly {$7000.00}! Where is the state and federal tax on smoking items? They are some of the highest taxed items as my research proves. So, did the cigar company eat the tax for 2 states as well as the federal tax as well? And how was my card present? It wasnt! I also received no calls about this and again if Citi did, it was from a fraudster and boy would I love to hear this call because its a lie or a complete farce made up by XXXX of the fraudsters. Are the Customer Service Rep and the fraudsters in cahoots because now this is looking like an inside job! This is very fishy and absolute fraud. Also, just an observation, wouldnt this type of call have been handled by a fraud agent, not a Customer Service agent that knows little about fraud?

10. So, in both of the cases above XXXX calls me a liar and says I contacted the Customer Service Department ( again why customer service when the fraud team are the experts. This make no sense at all and so I am now calling XXXX out ). She really does not understand ID Theft or Account Takeover. In fact, I dont think she should be in the fraud prevention or investigation businesses at all because she is making assumptions without any proof that it was me at all. Yet I have provided proof of where I live, where I was out of the country via my itineraries and letter from XXXX. How strange that I get called a liar without actually speaking to XXXX about any of this? You have a very poor investigator  here in XXXX and I never want her reviewing anything of mine in the future but I will subpoena her, embarrassing her in front of the court if push comes to shove! We are getting close! 
Finally, I am completely disgusted with all of the lies Citi has now spread about me and all of the many documents I have sent in with 25 complete packages being lost. Citi, you have my PII circling your office and I will sue for that if needed as well. Your defamation of character is also afoot here and it will certainly be addressed. This is ethically and morally a bad and dangerous investigations, that with my job, puts my family in a great deal of risk. As stated before, I will pay my ~ $ XXXX I owe on my AA MC and the ~ {$1000.00} I owe on the Simplicity MC, {$0.00} on the Brooks Brothers account ( it didnt show on my credit so the thieves didnt go after it BTW so Citis hap-hazard protection of its client didnt get tested here. I will also pay the {$1000.00} XXXX no interest period to be extended XXXX on my Home Depot Card. BTW the store did a great job here and shut down fraud for gift cards again by actually calling me ( the real me ) at the beginning of XXXX. As for Best Buy, I closed this account in XXXX and Citi allowed fraudsters XXXX mailbox thieves we believe ) to not only charge over $ XXXX but also increase the limit to {$3500.00}? Then your team has the guts to tell be that I showed my ID and that I verified my identity. Again, this was and is Identity theft. I was in New Jersey at the time at a friends wedding and even showed you proof of my itinerary for that as well. Do you think the fraudsters might have known I was out of town? XXXX proof attached ) I think so! 
Anyhow, I ask that all cases be re-opened as the stores side of Citi has done on my MC accounts. I ask that XXXX be removed from the cases altogether and I request that the new investigator call me to discuss all issues, and/or ask any questions they choose. Finally, thank you for the MC agreements on all accounts but oddly enough there is no record of any signature on any of them? Have you lost these records as well Citi? Stop scamming me, stand up for the things you have done improperly, get your investigators retained and I would suggest you fire the one mentioned so often in this letter since they are nor very good at all, have lied a lot and have accused an innocent man and his family who got their Identities stolen, accounts taken over, defrauded and then ACH payments made on their accounts that were not at all authorized, not to mention, Best Buy had been shut down altogether! 
Thank you and now I ask for proper investigative techniques and to be cleared of all fraud and wrong-doing in short and long-run. Finally, Citi will restore my cards and will also, and most importantly, restore my good name and credit on the bureaus! 

I have also sent in 3 links, another coming, showing ID theft in my direct location is very high due to mailboxes being broken into. I have also sent you pictures of our mailboxes being the same! 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

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