Consumer complaint received 2017-07-27
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NC
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:
On XXXX XXXX, 2017, a person made purchases using our credit card information in the city in which I live. I do not know how they obtained our credit card number and expiration date information because we did not lose a card. This person created a fraudulent card and made multiple purchases at multiple stores. Citibank has not officially credited my account. They continue to investigate all the while issuing conditional credits to my account but I believe that the law states I am not liable for fraudulent charges and therefore should have my account be credited for the amounts charged and Citibank can fix their problem with the merchants. This case has also exceeded the 30 days During two hours, an individual went to three different stores. They made a purchases in the amount of {$1200.00} at XXXX XXXX, {$1700.00} at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and {$1000.00} at XXXX. Upon seeing the charges on my billing statement, I immediately called Citibank and alerted them that fraudulent charges had been made and they needed to be removed. They did issue conditional credits, closed the card and then reissued a new card. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received paperwork from Citibank stating that we needed to provide more information about the charges. They specifically asked, " Please send a signed letter explaining your dispute in detail and include any related documentation. If you have a credit slip, credit memo, or credit advice from the merchant, please include a copy of the document with your letter. '' I did not have any documentation, so I crafted three letters and sent in them in the mail on XXXX XXXX, 2017. Here is my letter. 'X/XX/2017 Citibank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , SD XXXX Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to dispute a fraudulent charge on my account in the amount of {$1700.00} at the store XXXX XXXX XXXX . I am a victim of identity theft and did not make this charge. I am requesting that the charge be removed, that any finance and other charges related to the fraudulent amount be credited, as well, and that I receive and accurate statement. A police report has been filed. I would appreciate a response from you in writing. Thank you for your assistance. ' Concerned with this development, I filed a police report on XXXX XXXX, 2017 and began to contact the three businesses, myself, to assist the police in catching the individual ( s ) who did this. I spoke to a manager at XXXX, the first store a purchase was made at, and a clerk remembered the individual who made the purchase because of their aggressive behavior ; they had demanded the credit card be manually entered in because it would not scan. This is when I found out the person had not only stolen my credit card information, they had also created a physical card. I also called XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX but did not receive any additional information. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX Citibank then sent a letter for us to sign and fax back for each of the three charges stating, " Based on the information available, we have closed our investigation and reversed our credit. If you still wish to dispute this charge as unauthorized, please sign the statement below : " I have reviewed the documentation. Neither I nor anyone authorized by me made this charge. '' Cardmember SignatureXXXX DateXXXX If you did make the charge but are disputing it for another reason, please provide us with a detailed explanation as to why you are disputing it. To continue disputing this charge, please return this letter with the requested information by XX/XX/2017. Our fax number is XXXX. This number is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. '' With this letter, they attached scanned in copies of the receipts from each purchase. Each purchase had multiple {$200.00} gift cards, the signature looked nothing like mine, and each time the card had to be manually keyed in instead of using the chip or the magnetic strip. I sent back the signed letter and gave the new pieces of information ( receipts ) to the officer working on our case. On XXXX XXXX, 2017 I received a letter stating the following. " Thank you for your recent response. We are continuing to work with the merchant to obtain credit in the amount of {$1000.00} on your behalf. Since we have reopened our investigation, we have re-instated the conditional credit to your card that will appear on a subsequent statement. Upon conclusion of our investigation, you will be notified in writing or a statement message on your account. Please retain all of your documentation. We look forward to providing you with the best possible service. '' We received a similar letter for the charge made at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, the charge at XXXX was deemed to be a fraudulent charge and a credit for the {$1200.00} was issued. I have been informed by the customer service department at Citibank that the merchants have 45 days from the time they received the last letter to respond. The 45 days for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX expire on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX. Though the date for XXXX 's has passed, there still has been no resolution, only a statement by a customer service agent who then said Citibank had another 5 days to issue the response to us. This all seems arbitrary. The police have not yet caught the individual but have obtained video footage from both XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX showing what appears to be the same man making the purchases proving it was not myself nor my husband.

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