Consumer complaint received 2024-01-30
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
DATE : XX/XX/XXXX ; credit card notified immediately to dispute ; credit card was closed. 

AMOUNT : {$910.00} Below are topline bullets of my case with Cit Security/Disputes team, a dispute spanning XXXX months : - I have never been to XXXX XXXX  - thats an undercover/fake name for an illegal business. 

- I never authorized a charge in the amount of {$910.00}. 

- This is theft - its intent to fraud - and there is evidence of the merchants illegal business operations. 

- Citis early fraud alert, a benefit for safety protection highlighted as part of this credit card, did not happen - no text, email, or call. The {$910.00} amount under the category of fast food should have been flagged immediately, as that is not common purchase behavior for me. 

- The card benefits advertised include coverage from theft, fraud, unauthorized charges, etc, and cases should be looked at carefully as they are all different. There is clear evidence of wrongdoing in mine. 

- There was no regard for my appeal in XXXX, despite my warning to Citi of their dealing with criminals and providing all the proof of the business arrests that took place. 
As of XX/XX/XXXX, Citi is now stating I am responsible for the charge, despite their teams telling me they were working through getting me the permanent credit after their last merchant response ( late XX/XX/XXXX and early XX/XX/XXXX ). 

- There has been misleading information shared by Citi. They shared that they heard from the merchant in XXXX, following my appeal. I later learned ( on XX/XX/XXXX ) that the merchant never responded to my appeal, and Citi still sided with the original fake response from XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX days before 21 merchant owners/managers/staff were arrested for fraud. According to the dispute process, the merchant should respond to my appeal and accusations, and they did not. 

- The case was submitted to the Federal Trade Commission in XXXX- this information was shared with Citi, and I was in touch with the Embassy and local police in XXXX to inquire about a report. Citi stated that a police report doesnt matter and they will not reopen the case. 

ACTION : Unauthorized credit card charge by a merchant who had 21 owners/staff arrested and taken into custody for committing foreign credit card fraud/scams/theft. Based on online research and investigation, the criminal business rotates under four names to try to hide their identity, and the merchant bank is generating documentation Ive never seen before in an attempt to provide false proof of purchase. The receipt is all in XXXX, but with XXXX, the receipt is not itemized with any description of goods - it states SERVICE FEE with one lump amount charged- it also does not include the merchant name, address, phone number/site, and it does not include my name or last four digits of the card used. 

XXXX months after this dispute was opened, the criminal merchants are getting favored vs. a XXXX year loyal customer because Citi Mastercard will not validate or further investigate/consider any of the criminal evidence and will only trust the illegal operation of this business. 

Per Citi Mastercard 's recommendation, when I immediately reported the charge, they suggested opening the dispute as security fraud in late XX/XX/XXXX- the credit card was shut down. Then weeks later, the credit card company billed me again for {$910.00} and stated it needed to be a billing dispute. It moved to a different team and the dispute process restarted. 

The merchant did not respond till the end of XXXX ( two days before their arrests on XX/XX/XXXX ) - they fabricated a receipt in their response. In my early XXXX appeal, with evidence of the arrests, criminal activity, and proof from other customers from all over the world experiencing the same situations by the same merchant, it went into another round of review to the merchant, according to Citi. 

During this time, I learned that despite the letters issued to me from Citi with updates claiming they are working through this with the " merchant and/or merchant bank '', the reality is they don't check with the merchant at all- they only work through the bank who is following the lead of the criminal owners. If they started with the merchant and reviewed the high level of detail I provided about this business, it would be clear that there are criminals behind the operation. Instead, there was no customer courtesy to investigate deeper - or suggest other steps to take - to help my case and clear this charge, but none of that was taken into consideration. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, according to Citi, the merchant responded to my appeal. No proof of their response was provided to me- only a letter that stated they heard back from the merchant and they'd continue the investigation. I then responded to Citi with even more evidence of the criminal activity I found online to help with my case. 

In late XXXX and early XXXX, I placed two calls to Citi to check the status - both calls were good news from the representatives. They stated that they heard from the merchant and that they just need a few days to close the case to issue the " permanent credit... and you have been a customer for over 20 years... not to worry '' - so, we had come to a good conclusion. Both reps reiterated that the permanent credit was in the works and just to give it another couple of weeks for the letter. 

The letter came XX/XX/XXXX - two months since they had allegedly heard from the merchant - stating I was responsible for this charge. I couldnt believe this was the outcome, despite all my proof and efforts. 

After some calls with Citi, refusing to reopen the case or consider my evidence, I called a Disputes representative again on XX/XX/XXXX to make sure I was tracking all of this information correctly before sending a long letter to the Executive Response Unit ( and for purposes of this report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ). In that phone call, the representative confirmed they had only heard from the merchant ONCE- on XX/XX/XXXX. They never responded to my appeal where I accused them of criminal activity with PROOF of their arrests. It is unclear why Citi was deceitful to me stating they had heard from the merchant following my appeal- I asked why I was led to believe the merchant responded, but the representation could not answer the question. 

Here is what Citi did not do : - Credit card transaction was processed with no fraud safety alert text/email sent to verify the purchase under the category of " fast food restaurant '' for {$910.00}. I asked Citi Customer Service why this didnt happen, and no answer could be given as to why the fraud alert was not triggered. Never would I spend that amount at any business, and that should have been a red flag on Citibank to alert me based on my consumer purchasing behavior. In the past, I have received these alerts, but Citi did not this time, and they are aware they didnt. When you're advertising this benefit for credit card holders and your marketing includes this type of protection, it is unreasonable to make the consumer responsible for something that could have been avoided with their advertised security measures- this is something that Cit was sued for in XXXX for deceitful marketing, but they dont own up to their own faults in the process. 

- Given the larger criminal circumstances of this case, policies need to be reviewed that allow for the customer 's case to be further investigated in detail. Customer service was not the priority and my detailed appeal with substantial evidence of criminal activity was disregarded by ALL teams I spoke with - Security team, Disputes team- and Im now pleading with the Executive Response Unit to look at it closely. 

- Not one phone call or email acknowledgment of my communication of this case was done. No one reached out to ask questions. I also filed a complaint with the FTC, emailed the report number to Citi. No response. I alerted them that I was in touch with the Embassy in XXXX and with the local police in XXXX to try to provide any further documentation if helpful for my case- no response. There was zero guidance and zero efforts from the Citi Mastercard group to give the custom some reassurance. I called them multiple times each month to check in so that I could provide them with whatever was needed to help me, and I just kept being told to be patient while the process was in motion, but never did I speak or get a call from their disputes investigators for such a complicated case like this one.

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