Consumer complaint received 2023-02-20
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Imposter Fraud XXXX and Wire transactions Day 1 : On XX/XX/XXXX, I was using my personal laptop to open a Roth IRA account with XXXX. After I transferred the money from my bank into the Roth IRA accounts, I was attempting to access my school retirement website, again using my personal home XXXX  laptop. I was getting a security message site unsafe. I was able to get on this site using my school XXXX laptop, so I used XXXX search to look up the number for XXXX Support/Help thinking something was wrong with my personal home laptop. XXXX XXXX answered the phone introducing himself as an XXXX agent and determined my laptop was hacked and they already were getting into my bank account. Because I was using my laptop less than an hour ago to transfer money from my checking and savings account and because I was getting a security alert on my retirement webpage, I assumed he was correct that my computer was hacked, they accessed my bank information, and that what was causing the site unsafe message to come up when I tried to get into my retirement account. He transferred me over to XXXX XXXX who gave me his phone number ( XXXX ), his XXXX employee number ( XXXX XXXXXXXX ) and a case number ( Case # XXXX ) He told me he was an associate of the fraud department for XXXX Support. He told me my laptop and phone had been hacked and asked me to delete every app on my phone I do not use so he can check the ones that are left to see what apps they had access to. 
After I did that, he determined that someone had access to my emails, XXXX and Citibank apps. He said they were withdrawing money and we would immediately need to start making dummy accounts for the same amount of money made out to the person who was withdrawing the money which would block their transfer from being withdrawn. He asked me to put the app XXXX on my phone so he can screen share with me and talk me through how to transfer the money. XXXX said there were 4 withdrawals in progress coming from XXXX, New Mexico, XXXX and Nevada. Once he was screen sharing with me, he asked me to go into my Citibank app and showed me how to set up a XXXX account. He then told me step by step how to transfer {$500.00} from my checking account through XXXX to XXXX XXXX. He then took me through the steps on my Citibank account webpage on how to wire {$15000.00} from my savings account to XXXX XXXX. In the notes for each transaction, he instructed me to put CAP and that code would be recognized by the bank to block this transaction and the hacked withdrawal requests. 
He then asked me to go to my text messages/email and open the text messages/emails that were sent by Citibank. He was still screen sharing and saw Citibank was asking if I authorized the transfer he told me to press 1 for yes. I also got a fraud alert text from Citibank asking if I was aware of the money being taken out he told me to click on Yes. Then XXXX told me to immediately delete the texts and emails so the people hacking my account cant read them. He told me the emails and texts came so quickly because they were fake Citibank messages that the hackers send out so they can determine if I am trying to block the transaction. XXXX told me to answer both as if I was aware of the transactions so we could confuse the hackers and keep them active in trying to access money since he was working with the FBI and the longer they stay active, the better chance they can track where the hackers are and get a conviction. 
XXXX sent me text messages with name/bank information. These text messages were gone after I went into the XXXX store to have a complete factory reset done on my phone to eliminate anything that may have been installed on my phone through the XXXX app. ( per XXXX support recommendation ) but I took screenshots of the transactions and can provide the information for most of the transactions made if needed. After each wire transaction, XXXX told me I should expect a phone call and if that comes, I should say I know the person I sent the money to, that the person did renovations on my home and the money wired was payment for that work. XXXX told me to give the person all the information they asked for, including bank account XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX He told me with the XXXX app I installed, he would be able to listen and track any calls I get. Since our dummy transactions blocked the money from leaving my account, giving the hackers my bank information could do no harm. XXXX told me he was working closely with the FBI and telling the hackers on the phone that I knew the person I wired money to would confuse the hackers and give the FBI more time to keep investigating and get a conviction. I never received a phone call that showed up as unknown on my phone that XXXX was expecting. XXXX told me he had a 90 % conviction rate of all cases he handles and because I caught the hackers before they actually were able to obtain the money from my account, the FBI would have a much better chance of convicting them. He said they already found and convicted one of the hackers and were close to catching another. 
During this whole time, he told me not to open my laptop and not to open my Citibank accounts because if I did, it would open my bank accounts up to more people who were stealing my money. He warned me not to tell anyone about this because many times this crime is committed by someone the person knows possibly a relative or a roommate who might have access to banking information. XXXX told me since I was hacked, he would be installing an XXXX protection system on both my laptop and XXXX, a strong protection installation that people usually have to pay for. It will protect me from this ever happening again. But until that was put on, my devices were still at risk, thus, dont open my Citibank account. The protection system would have to wait to be installed until we set up all the dummy accounts to block the hackers. 

Day 2 : The next day, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX talked me through another XXXX transfer from my checking account to XXXX XXXX for {$500.00}. When Citibank confirmation came in my email, he had me open them, then immediately delete them and then delete them from trash. XXXX said the hackers can read my emails and we dont want them to see that the transfer went through. He then talked me through another {$15000.00} wire transfer from my savings account to XXXX XXXX and once again had me read, say it wasnt fraud then delete all texts and emails from Citibank concerning those transactions. He then asked if I could take a picture of my drivers license front and back and text that to him so he could use it for security to block a business trying to withdraw money. That is the transaction that I did not take notes on as far as how much was being wired. He gave me the name of XXXX XXXX from XXXX XXXX sent through a XXXX Routing Number from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I do not have notes indicating what the money amount was for this transaction and I have not seen any money being withdrawn from my checking or savings account under this name. 
He then asked me to again go to my text messages/email and open the text messages/emails that were sent by Citibank. He was still screen sharing and saw Citibank was asking if I authorized the transfer he again told me to press 1 for yes. I also got a fraud alert text from Citibank asking if I was aware of the money being taken out he again told me to click on Yes. Then XXXX told me to immediately delete the texts and emails so the people hacking my account cant read them. He pointed out some information in the texts that identified them as being sent from hackers and not from Citibank. Again, confirming I agreed to these transactions to the fake Citibank texts were done to confuse the hackers giving the FBI more time to find them and convict. 
XXXX again sent me text messages with name/bank information. After each wire transaction, he told me I should again expect a phone call and if that comes, I should say I know the person I sent the money to, that the person did renovations on my home and the money wired was payment for the work. He again told me to give the person all the information they asked for, including bank account numbers/social security numbers . He told me with the XXXX app I installed, he would be able to listen and track any calls I get. Since our dummy transactions blocked the money from leaving my account, giving the hackers my bank information could do no harm. XXXX told me he was working closely with the FBI and telling the hackers on the phone that I knew the person I wired money to would confuse the hackers and give the FBI more time to keep investigating and get a conviction. I never received a phone call that showed up as unknown on my phone that XXXX was expecting. XXXX told me he had a 90 % conviction rate of all cases he handles and because I caught the hackers before they actually were able to obtain the money from my account, the FBI would have a much better chance of convicting them. He said they already found and convicted one of the hackers and were close to catching another. 
During this whole time, he told me not to open my laptop and not to open my Citibank bank accounts. He warned me not to tell anyone about this because many times this crime is committed by someone the person knows possibly a relative or a roommate who might have access to banking information. 


Day 3 : The last wire transfer was on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX talked me through sending XXXX XXXX {$20000.00} from my savings account and reading/saying I knew of transfers and it wasnt fraud/deleting Citibank alert emails and texts. ( see day 1 and 2 for explanation on why he had me do this ). Shortly after this transaction, I called my boss at work to inform her I was running late and told her what was happening to my bank account that I was being hacked and XXXX  Support was helping me block the transactions and working with the FBI to catch the people who had access to my bank account. My boss mentioned what was going on to a co-worker who then called me and said a friend of hers had something similar happen and it was fraud they were using her to access her bank account to steal her money. She advised me to call XXXX ( and gave me a correct XXXX XXXX phone number. ) I called XXXX and after giving them the first three numbers of XXXX XXXX Case number, they said that is not an XXXX Case number and I should immediately call my bank. I then received a text message from XXXX XXXX telling me that they have evidence that someone I know is one of the hackers with access to my bank account and I should call him immediately so he can give me the information. ( my co-worker called XXXX from her work phone and yelled at him for stealing money, which is why XXXX texted me about a friend in on the sceme ). I blocked his phone number and began receiving phone calls from XXXX XXXX, CA ( XXXX ) and XXXX TX ( XXXX ) which I also blocked. I immediately called Citibank and reported the XXXX and wire transactions and they eventually locked both my checking and savings accounts. When I called Citibank I had a hard time getting through to the fraud department since my call kept dropping. I began asking for a direct number and giving my phone number to associates in case they lost the call while I was giving information. There were times where the Citibank associates said my account didnt exist and wouldnt put me through to the fraud department. Citibank can go through the recorded phone calls I made that evening begging them to not drop my call again because earlier in the evening when I began trying to contact Citibank, the last wire transfer did not clear yet and I was hoping they could block that transaction before it went through, but because of how difficult it was ( and time consuming ) to get to the right department, the last wire transfer cleared and was not able to be blocked. 

I opened a new checking account with Citibank on Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX and transferred what was left from my savings into the new checking account so the hacked accounts would have a XXXX balance. I also went to the XXXX XXXX and had a complete factory reset done on my phone ( per XXXX XXXX recommendation ) in case the XXXX app installed a profile or something to continue tracking my activity on my phone. 
I reported this to the XXXX Police Department on XX/XX/XXXX, the FBI on XX/XX/XXXX and the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation on XX/XX/XXXX and the Office of the Attorney General, IL. I also sent Citibank notarized Affidavits of Unauthorized Online Wire Transfers on XX/XX/XXXX per their request through a letter I received in the mail from Citibank. A separate affidavit was sent for each of the 3 wire transactions. I also sent Citibank a complete explanation of the XXXX transactions per their request over the phone when I requested my first appeal. 

Citibank response Citibank Response : XXXX XXXX- I reported this fraud scam to Citibank on XX/XX/XXXX. They told me to report to the Police and to the FBI. Those reports were to be used to help prove this was a criminal case of XXXX. Citibank told me the investigation would take 30 90 days and I should expect an agent to call me to gather more information before a decision would be made. I received a letter from Citibank dated XX/XX/XXXX denying my XXXX claims citing the activity appears to be consistent with your normal banking activities. I immediately called them and questioned how this activity was consistent with my banking activity when I never had a XXXX account before in my life ( since the scammer had to screenshare to help me set up the account ) and to ask if they even took the time to investigate what happened since a decision was made in only 5 days. The associate re-opened my case for an appeal and asked me to send in a written document of exactly what happened which will be attached to my appeal for reconsideration. I faxed that directly to the Retail XXXX Operations Department of Citibank and was told it may take up to 45 days to investigate. They received my inquiry on XX/XX/XXXX, and once again, 6 days later, sent me a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX saying after additional review of my case, we maintain our position to deny your claim. I called requesting a 3rd appeal which was once again denied in a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX. The letter states that You are entitled by law to obtain copies of the information used in our investigation. When I received the letter on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citibank and requested this information which I assume will prove on their end that this was consistent with my normal banking activities and show my previous XXXX activity ( which there is none ). I have not received any letter from them yet with this information. 

Citibank Response Wire Transfers : I recently received a letter from Citibank dated XX/XX/XXXX stating they also denied the transactions for the total amount of {$50000.00} stating : We have completed our investigation of your fraud claim and the decision was based on : Claim was denied due to the fraud reported was caused by providing customer account information or authorization for the transactions that were determined to be a scam.

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