Consumer complaint received 2020-06-02
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Bounced checks or returned payments

Complaint:
Title : Citibank blames the victims of crimes and allows for criminals to get away with the scams they orchestrate. 

Today 's Date : XX/XX/XXXX To Whom it May Concern, I was scammed in XXXX of XXXX in the amount of {$2200.00}. The way Citibank has handled this scam has been nothing short of stressful, deplorable, and down-right baffling. The lack of communication between departments and the lack of communication between myself and those departments have either been non-existent or when existent, extremely confusing. Their inability to connect me to the correct departments through physical mail and through the customer service line was an absolute nightmare. In this letter, I will be thoroughly explaining all instances in which Citibank has failed in customer service and has made a victim of a crime pay for the actions of the criminal even when there was an on-going police investigation. 

When I was scammed I was a XXXX XXXX XXXX. A new one simply trying to earn some money. I began in XX/XX/XXXX and in XX/XX/XXXX I was lucky enough to finally find a steady job as I had been unemployed for 3 months. The job only paid {$37000.00} a year ( before taxes ). To say the least, I am not made of money. A woman contacted me to buy products from me for her step-daughters wedding. ( I have the statement I gave to police along with the police report ). Long story short she said she messed up the check. She convinced me to deposit the check and then send the money to a separate account that was apparently the wedding planners because she had included the wedding planners payment in the same check as my payment for the products she was ordering. She did this to steal the money from my account. Citibank was not able to catch the fake check even after TWO separate deposits were made into my account over the course of 5 days after depositing the check at a Citibank ATM. When Citibank finally discovered that the check was fake, my account was frozen, but luckily I was smart enough to remove most of my savings ( which was only around {$1200.00} ), leaving around only {$250.00} in my savings account. As I mentioned earlier, I am not made of money, therefore there was no money to steal, and my account went into the negative over {$2000.00} after the check bounced ( I believe I may have had {$35.00} in my checking account at the time ). 

After seeing my account had frozen I went into a panic, called Citibank, and I was told that I couldnt do anything and that I was responsible and I owed Citibank the money now. Money I didnt steal. Money that was never mine since my account was now in the negative due to this criminals manipulative and heinous actions. I can only imagine how many people around the US have had the same issue happen, and are now in debt literally paying for the actions of a criminal. 

After having a full blown XXXX XXXX since I had no money already and now was thrown into {$2000.00} worth of debt, I got on the phone with Citibank again to file two separate claims. As I mentioned earlier, there were two deposits that went through and both were sent separately to the wedding planner. One payment via bankers check ( I have a picture of the check and the receipt and the account numbers I was asked to send it to ) and one payment via XXXX payment ( I have a picture of the receipt ). The bankers check case was for {$1800.00} and the XXXX payment case was for {$400.00}. The next day I filed the police report. The next few months were probably the most stressful, frustrating, and depressing months of my life dealing with Citibank and their lack of customer service and common sense. 

I may have called Citibank 12 times between the months of XX/XX/XXXX to the end of XX/XX/XXXX. Every time I called I was either transferred to the wrong department ( a rep said quote : they always do that. ), given the wrong information to support my claims, was told that the letter I sent was never received, and I had sent it to the completely wrong address ( a letter that contained account information, case # s for Citibank, and my police report number and my address ), and the most frustrating part of it all was that on one of my last calls with Citibank, I found out the large claim I made for {$1800.00} was actually closed months ago even though on my last 9 calls I was told it was still active. Even though I had asked in XXXX why I got a letter in the mail saying that the claim was denied under the category of forgery BECAUSE I PRESENTED ID AT THE BANK and they told me that they didnt know what letter I was talking about ( I HAVE THE LETTER ). THE CLAIM HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH FORGERY OR IF I WAS THE PERSON DEPOSITING AND REMOVING MONEY FROM MY ACCOUNT. MY CLAIM WAS IN THE WRONG CATEGORY. It is important to note that my large claim was denied only 3 days after I gave Citibank the police report number. The police categorized the case as XXXX XXXX. I am amazed at how quickly Citibank was able to complete their investigation when the police hadnt even started theirs. 
This is what these scammers do. They get the person to do all the work for them so that the victim is left crying on the floor having a XXXX XXXX being told she is now responsible for the negative balance, while they enjoy the money they just made. Criminals/Scammers have been profiting off of this loophole Citibank has never closed and instead of closing the loophole they attack the victims. 
It was in this call that I also found out I had been given the wrong number to call when trying to get updates on the {$1800.00} claim. The {$1800.00} and {$400.00} claims were actually in different departments which I was never told about, AND the numbers on the letters I was getting in the mail were not even the correct numbers! How is one supposed to be productive if they are never given the correct information? How is one supposed to resolve issues when departments that have nothing to do with each other are giving information they dont have, are not privy to, or are not up to date with because IT IS NOT THEIR DEPARTMENT? This call was also where I filed my first complaint with Citibank. 

Due diligence is another thing that is not taught at Citibank apparently. I had to explain my story to a new customer service rep, sometimes multiple times per call, every time I called because notes were not being taken properly. Additionally, I have few letters telling me to contact the CRIMINAL that SCAMMED me in order to figure out where my money is. Additionally, I never received the letter I needed to send back with a copy of my police report because the vaguely named back office has their ways and already got my police report. Truly laughable. 

Fast forward XX/XX/XXXX, I still hadnt received the information on how to get my remaining funds out of my savings account mind you, I get a statement in the mail saying my account is now at zero. In the middle of a global pandemic, CITIBANK REMOVED THE FUNDS FROM MY SAVINGS TO SETTLE DEBTS IN MY CHECKING ACCOUNT WHICH WAS NOT AUTHORIZED. This is where I filed a second complaint with Citibank. I was also informed that the investigation for my claims was still under investigation ( even though I was told after I appealed it that it got denied again and the investigation was closed ) and I was told that if the investigation went in my favor the money would be returned. Why is my money being moved during an active investigation in the first place? Why was I never given the provisional credit I was promised either in the beginning? What is going on?? 
Citibanks Faults : 1. Incorrect information given on the status of on active claims ( repeated offense ) 2. Departments giving out information that is not part of their department ( repeated offense ) 3. Inability to transfer a customer to the correct department ( repeated offense ) 4. Victim Blaming 5. Moving money without the customers permission 6. Giving incorrect addresses where to send delicate information that includes full name, case numbers, police report numbers, address, and telephone number of customer. ( and apparently never receiving it even though it still went to a Citibank corporate address, albeit the wrong address, but still a corporate address where Im sure it could have been located ) 7. Lack of due diligence. ( repeated offense ) 8. Incorrectly categorizing claims, making the process even longer. 
9. Disorganization ( repeated offense ) 10. Incorrect phone numbers given on letters from Citibank updating the customer on the status of their claims. ( repeated offense ) 11. The inability to properly inform a customer on what department to contact when trying to obtain information ( repeated offense ) 12. Telling the customer to contact the criminal that scammed said customer even though the customer told Citibank numerous times to stop doing that for obvious reasons. 
I was a customer of Citibanks for five years ; my credit score is a XXXX according to XXXX XXXX and a XXXX according to XXXX. I pay my bills on time and I have always been a model customer to all banks. Never in my life did I think a bank would blame a victim of a crime for being a victim of a crime. It is absolutely nauseating. And to have it all handled so poorly. Beyond upsetting. They moved the money from my SAVINGS to pay off a debt a CRIMINAL created and used me as a puppet to do. I am LUCKY that I decided to move to another bank because I fear that my stimulus check would have been taken as well. 
Citibanks entire Code of Conduct is 56 pages worth of LIES. I would quote from it, but that would be pointless seeing as I would have to copy and paste the entire PDF onto this word document. 

I am not paying off debt that is not mine. I am not giving my money to a company that blames the victim, frequently provides false information, and does not live up to their Code of Conduct. The purpose of their claims department is to help those that have been wronged and to provide ADEQUATE, PROPER, LEGITIMATE, and TRUSTWORTHY investigations. I highly doubt that is what their back office was doing. 

As a side note : if the transcripts of each call are obtained by Consumer Finance ( I do not have {$2000.00} to pay off a scammers payday let alone funds to pay for a lawyer and get a subpoena ) I would be more than happy to devote my time and read every single 1.5-2 hour long transcript and highlight every single instance where Citibank went wrong to further prove my argument. 
Please be advised that I have included multiple appeal numbers for both the {$1800.00} claim and the {$400.00} claim. The number on the name of the photo is simply indicating that it is another photo and it is different from the others that are named similarly. It is not naming the appeal numbers in chronological order based on when they were received. 

Thank you for your time.

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