Consumer complaint received 2018-11-19
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IL
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:
A new credit card sent to me via US Postal Service never reached me ; it was stolen from the mail and used fraudulently for over {$17000.00} in purchases in two days, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/2018. It was supposed to have been mailed on XXXX XXXX and to be received by XX/XX/XXXX. I called several times between XXXX XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX about it ( because I had been hoping to use it for an expense due by XX/XX/XXXX, and I was traveling XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX ). When I returned from that trip and saw that my card had not arrived in the mail as promised and expected, I called and was sent a new card ( via courier service ) with a new card number. I did not know about the fraudulent charges until I received the first bill for the card, in early XXXX, showing a credit balance instead of showing the almost {$4500.00} I had charged and did owe. I called to ask about the " credit '' and stated that I wanted to pay what was due because I had made the charges ; they told me to wait for the next bill. I was told that an investigation was underway, and I was given a " security credit '' for some of the fraudulent charges, which totaled more than my authentic charges - hence the " credit balance '' situation on the first bill. Now I have received the second bill, and I see that the security credits have all been reversed and Citi Bank is saying that I am liable for the purchases. I had no idea that over {$17000.00} had been charged fraudulently, until I saw this bill showing the reversal of all the security credits. They never contacted me about this, except for one call from a woman in the investigation department. I later tried multiple times to reach her, leaving her messages with no response - as well as calling customer service, security, and the fraud department multiple times about the problem, and being told I should contact that same woman. Today I went into my local Citi branch and asked for help in contacting the right people to resolve this. On the phone, I was told that that woman no longer works for the department and that my case has been assigned to someone else. Neither the woman nor the newly assigned man ever contacted me after that initial call I had with her. I was not even in XXXX, the city where the fraudulent charges were made, on XX/XX/XXXX ; I was flying home to XXXX from XXXX XXXX California. I definitely did not receive the card that was used for fraudulent charges, did not make the fraudulent charges, and should not be held responsible for the charges. I would appreciate your assistance in having Citi restore the " security credits '' so that I am responsible for the charges I did make on the card I did receive, but not for the charges made fraudulently on the charge I didn't receive.

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 non-monetary relief