Consumer complaint received 2018-11-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2018 I initiated a XXXX  transfer through my Citibank mobile app in the amount of {$1300.00} to my landlord for rent payment. As usual I logged onto my app and initiated a payment by selecting my landlord 's email address on the list of contacts. On the night of XX/XX/2018, she contacted me to advise that she never received the funds. I looked in my list of transactions and the money was taken out. I looked further on the list of XXXX transactions and realized it indicated that the funds went to an unknown individual. I called the bank and they opened up an investigation. The investigation then resulted in them claiming that I initiated the transaction by entering this unknown individual 's XXXX digit telephone number. I advised them that I did no such thing and this has to be some type of fraud where someone intercepted this transaction. I appealed the decision which resulted in them claiming that I mistakenly inputted the phone number. I appealed it again as I've only sent transactions with email addresses and individuals that I know who are on my contact list. I've visited 2 branches and tried to get help with no luck. I tried calling the unknown individual when this all started with the advise of the citibank rep who opened up the initial investigation. I spoke to the woman who claimed that she had 3 bank accounts and she would have to check each one. While on the phone with her she checked her Citibank account and her XXXX account. She said no funds came in. She then strangely said that her third bank account with Bank XXXX XXXX was recently closed and that is the bank that is associated with the phone number I called her on. She then went on to say that the phone she picked up was her daughter 's. She said she would confirm and get back to me. She never got back to me and after the first appeal with Citibank I went to a branch in XXXX, NY. While with the bank rep we attempted to call the number together only to discover that the phone number was disconnected. On XX/XX/2018 during my second appeal, I requested the documentation from the first investigation. On XX/XX/18 they mailed me a screenshot of their system which basically just states that " names do not match. Funds not available. Funds will not be returned ''. They did not look to see if this is fraud, they only looked to see that the names did not obviously match and refused to look deeper. If this is a fraud where people are diverting funds during a transaction, it must be investigated properly. I did not input a phone number when initiating this transaction. I also attempted to contact XXXX because citibank claimed that once the funds are posted and out of my account, the funds are in the XXXX network and they can not do anything. When I contacted XXXX, they state that unless the transaction was performed in a XXXX XXXX, they cannnot do anything.

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