Consumer complaint received 2021-07-01
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:
Myself, my family and now our lawyer is involved in this complaint. Note my family has been a Citibank customer since XXXX. Have we had fraud in the past, yes, but not even close to this level. Everyone, including my lawyer and other card holder that I have submitted this documentation too has cleared or have asked for it all to be cleared, other than Citibank who actually cleared it twice and then re-negged because of additional fraudulent ACH payments. Yes, my family and myself have been direct victims of, first and foremost, Identity theft which also effected my XXXX XXXX  student account which is/was attached to our checking account at XXXX. These Fraudsters, as has been documented came after myself in full force " hard '' as one police officer put it. He stated that he has seen it this bad before and with one of his own police officers ( colleagues ) as well due to the type of job he performs ( criminal and forensic investigation ) and once the Fraudsters figured out his occupation he became under serious attack. He too struggled with Citibank in particular because of what he called a dysfunction over all process. This is really sad! The mere fact that investigators in civil service of our communities and now an investigator, myself, from the banking industry who have been trained to investigate bad guys, compile deep levels of evidence, and even find out where some of these " rings '' are operating out of, and then fall to an " unprotected '' role by our own brethren is not only discouraging but is also sad. I don't know about the aforementioned police investigator but I know that myself and others have made a great impact in breaking up fraud and anti-money laundering schemes and rings. What's our reward? A pat on the back and now apparently being accused of crimes myself, my family nor friends did not commit. Heck of an ironic turn of events but Citibank could not be more wrong. The police I have contacted alone agree 100 % and are willing to testify in my defense on all counts. One the of officers even commented " Why should we be working to do any good for anyone if this is how we are to be treated at the end of the day! 

Each day, I research along with my attorney as he and I have time only to turn over new issues. I can only report that which I find or that which we believe has happened and you know what? That story can also change with new evidence coming to light. If investigators at Citibank don't understand that then they either have not been in the investigation business very long or they are " trapped '' in a world that " everyone is guilty until proven innocent ''. That's completely backward in our society and I suggest Citibank, in particular look at the regulation that governs credit cards, paying attention to the fact that you offer 100 % Identity Theft and fraud protection to you consumers, and in this case that's what my family and I are ( consumer victims ) that brought these issues to your attention, not the other way around. Citibank, in fact allowed this fraud and Identity theft to continue even after I reported it, began to investigate, and began supplying documentation to protect myself, my family and Citibank. To date, Citibank is the ONLY creditor that has not discussed ( in full ) the complaints I have sent in through the CFPB and the disparate information they have received from their teams. Have I had to recant findings that I believed to be one way or another through additional research? Of Course! That's a proper investigative process because if facts change, they are no longer good facts, the new facts, with supporting evidence are. If Citibank does not understand this they don't appear to understand the twists and turns an investigation can take, and as for myself, I document everything XXXX good, bad or indifferent )! That's what compliance people and investigators do! We don't take sides and we certainly do not " flip-flop '' our decisions based upon proven evidence. If the evidence is adjusted we add and and modify our approach but it's usually against the fraudster because at the end of the day, they caused the MESS! 

Now, I am going to pass along a couple other pieces of evidence that Citibank should certainly think about or act upon. First, it has been noted that the " mailbox bank '' in my community was broken into at the beginning of XXXX. If you google map my area of our subdivision you will see we set op in a large square or rectangle of sorts. That square or rectangle surrounds yet another square/rectangle. This is not at all a through street and therefore the people who are here 1. Live here 2. Are visiting, 3. are looking for a new place to live since we are the most attractive place to live, arguably, in all of XXXX ( our community ) which began in the XXXX  's and was completed in the early XXXX 's. It considered one of the most sought after areas in all of XXXX XXXX XXXX and homes, even when times are slow do not last on the market for more than 2 week. At this point they are selling with multiple offers as soon as they are posted on XXXX with multiple offers. Now, many of my neighbors, including the 6 that are on my block have all been hit with the fraud bug, Identity Theft or both. We believe this uptick is due to the break in of our mailboxes and yet the XXXX has yet to fix it. In addition, we have been told by the police that that this has been going on and they know of at least XXXX cases in our high popular a beautiful community? What were these crooks after? Why of course the Stimulus Checks that were sent out and while getting some of them they also received a ton of PII on all people in our area. That's disgusting and yet Citibank keeps send mail through the XXXX just to have it stolen over and over again. We also have to go to the PO and pick up the bulk of our mail, on a schedule ( 2 days a week ) by address which causes us all to wait in line for 1-2 hours twice a week. Is this Citibank 's fault? No! But you are contributing to the increased problem. 

Finally, On Tuesday of this week myself, my wife and other neighbors have been receiving calls from a FAKE ( criminal ) person representing themselves as representing ALL card companies. This certainly set off a " Red Flag '' for me and the aforementioned neighbors I discussed. I was so fortunate to intercept two of these calls. On stated he represented XXXX XXXX  XXXX  and wouldn't you know it, one stated he was representing Citibank and he was " rebuilding my entire credit file ''. The crazy thing is that these calls both came from the same number XXXX XXXX and both times the Fraudster represented himself as XXXX XXXX. Hmmmm! I am no dummy and neither are my neighbors and we came together again stating this had to be fraud. I called all my creditors, as did they, other than Citibank because all of our calls are going absolutely nowhere, and the people who need to know either don't return their calls, though they said they would within 24-48 hours or the messages never actually get to them because of Citibank 's highly disparate and dysfunctional system where notes and documentation are not forwarded on to the " next link of the chain ''. How would that " next link '' know to ask for this information unless they scurried around to find it? Why wouldn't that WEAK chain link instead place all of the documentation and notes in a central repository only able to be viewed by those that have the authority and therefore not have to " scurry '', receiving partial or no documentation at all after all of their hard work? This has now happened dozens of times with me and many times with the friends I am in contact with that are in the same boat, which because it's Citibank, is taking on a lot of water it appears! So anyway, this " agent '' ( fraudster '' ) state that he was in the process of rebuilding my profile with Citibank and " all '' of my card accounts ( very suspicious ). Second he gave his FULL NAME ( XXXX XXXX ) and seemed very aware of what was going on with me and several others in my area. The full name issue also was very suspicious because up to XXXX XXXX in Citibank 's XXXX, I had been told that last names were not permitted and that all employees had no way to call out, nor did they have an outside email address. This led me and others right back to the Identity theft and we wonder if Citibank is sharing our XXXX  ( Data Privacy ) with the outside which would be an extreme regulatory and legal violation.

This is what is going to happen on my side in the coming week or so : 1. My Lawyer
will be sending Citibank a letter via overnight that highlights the major issues, points to the regulations and laws and will attest the fact that I have had nothing but a great relationship with Citibank ( starting with Home Depot ) since XXXX!

The way to remediate this will be as follows

: 1. Citibank is to contact me with a date and time that can be placed on my calendar and my lawyer will be allowed to be present to listen in as I will authorize this. We will then open up a two way discussion and Citibank will discontinue treating me as a criminal. 2. Citibank will be asked to remove all Fraudulent Charges, Fraudulent payments and bounced ACH payments that have not come from any other banks/credit union that I don't have an account with. You may call and verify those facts
with said companies by using my SSN, DOB, Address, etc. In all cases you will find I have not had an account with any, other than XXXX since the XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  accounts ) which is likely purged. These payments and " charge backs '' are to be ex-sponged from my credit record on the accounts in question ( XXXX and XXXX  XXXX XXXX accounts ) as they have/had nothing to do with me 3. There was a {$7000.00} charge made to my Citibank XXXX  account from a " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' merchant and this not only needs to stay removed it has nothing to do with me as well. From my understand, this is a XXXX shop and that's an awful lot of XXXX XXXX to purchase as an individual. Note, I don't XXXX, I don't distribute, nor do I sell any type of XXXX  related products. I am deeply concerned that I had to find this and Citibank did not question this " rounded '' dollar charge. Absolute fraud and Citi did a very bad job here! 

4. All of my credit card need to be reactivated as soon as all fraud has been removed and my credit limits must be re-established on the following 1. XXXX XXXX XXXX 2. XXXXy 4. Brooks Brothers 5. Home Depot 6. Best Buy 5. All three bureaus are to be contacted immediately and Citibank is to reverse the " Account Closed by Creditor '' statements an place my accounts in excellent standing as they were prior to this mess that began when my laptop was stolen from my XXXXXXXX XXXX Room in XXXX Florida. 

You lack of verbal an discussion responses have all been noted and it it now required that this come to a head with restoration of my credit rating and accounts. 

What Citibank has done is non-transparent, reprehensible, and immoral It's time to fix this for myself and my family immediately or additional actions will be taken. All other creditors have contacted me and are cleaning this up since, it's convoluted, complex and quite scary for my family to be going through. Again, if I am spoken to as a criminal, I will ensure that is recorded, as it has in the past, and presented to higher state or federal authorities for review that we will subpena Citibank to be present for. In this case, Citibank is in the wrong and unfortunately we, the consumers, are made to suffer due to your inappropriate reactionary ways. You are to be there to protect you consumer, and bottom line, you have not been. Citibank should be embarrassed and I would even say this is press worthy so that all can see what the bank has/has n't done and what myself, my family and my attorney have gone through to get the appropriate communication this has deserved! 

Thank you, 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