Consumer complaint received 2018-12-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: VA
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I am writing today regarding my fraud claim case which was wrongfully denied by Citibank. I have provided all the requested evidence that the investigator requested however the investigator lied numerous times and denied the claim unethically. Please read below for the whole story. 

In early XXXX, I was visiting my cousin in XXXX and we, my brother and two cousins, were robbed. We all had all of our wallets and phones stolen. We filed a police report and as soon as we got a hold of a phone, started calling all our banks/credit card companies to inform of what happened and to cancel/block our stolen cards, and called dmv to get new licenses etc. The thieves swiped all of my credit cards, most credit cards detected fraud after the initial 1-2 transactions and auto locked and the thieves only were able to steal a few hundred dollars per card. However, Citi security did not detect fraud and the thieves were able to swipe my Citi card for approximately {$3500.00} before it locked. I have provided evidence of all these cards to Citi as a show of good faith even though it was not requested by the investigator. My investigator for the case was Citi Security Operations employee XXXX XXXX. I explained the whole story to him when he got contacted me initially. He requested that I provide two things : ( 1. ) a front and back copy of my driver 's license which I had told him was also stolen as it was in my wallet during the robbery. ( 2. ) proof that my phone was stolen by sending proof that I called my cell phone carrier to suspend my phone line and resumed it by purchasing a new SIM card. I obliged and sent him the requested documents. Then I would call him every few days to check on the progress of the case, he never answered his phone and his phone mostly went straight to voicemail. I left him countless voicemails, emails, and messages to check on status of case and see if he needed any more evidence to conclude his investigation. He was extremely unprofessional and never returned my calls, left my messages on 'read ', ignored voicemails, and got back in touch with me. Few weeks later, I got a letter in the mail saying my claim was reversed/denied and the investigation is concluded. At this point, I was calling Citi customer support and security operations on a daily basis to see why it was denied and to attempt to get in touch with Investigator XXXX XXXX. The customer support teams would have me explain my story to each individual person and then 30 mins later transfer me to another person/department and have me repeat the process. I usually spent about 2 hours per phone call and did this for countless days and nobody helped me even though I had provided all the requested evidence. They would always say we can't help as there is an investigator assigned to the case even though I informed them the head investigator never answers his phone or returns my calls after I have left him numerous voicemails. They told me they can file a complaint on my behalf and have someone call me back. I filed 3 different complaints and never got a return call. I used to call the investigator during business hours almost daily and surprisingly he answered my call one day. I asked him what was going on and why he denied my claim, even though I provided him with all the requested documents. He said there were two main reason, one because I had said my license was stolen but I sent him pictures of my license as he himself requested. I explained to him that I sent the pictures from my Photos gallery on my laptop as I have pictures of my license, passport etc saved in my computer. He said that he requested pictures of the 'new ' license that I got from the DMV not the old one and to send him those if I want him to reopen the investigation and approve the claim ( he was lying and I have proof of the original letter he sent from Citi security operations where it simply says provide a copy of license, and not a 'New ' license, I thought he was simply trying to verify my identity, instead he was trying to trick me, so I sent the pics from my photo gallery on my computer ). I told him that I have requested a new license from DMV and it recently came in the mail and that if he was clear in his request I would've waited until the new license arrived in the mail and sent him photos of that instead. He then proceeded to say okay send me the new license photos and sent me a email from Citi operations reopening my case and requesting this information ( I have evidence of this letter and the fact he reopened the investigation as well ). Immediately after, I send him pictures/proof of the new license which clearly says it is a reissued license from the DMV on it. He also said that the evidence I sent him from my online XXXX XXXX phone account of line being suspense and restarted was not enough and that to send him the actual receipt of transaction. I told him I work in New York and was back home when I got a new SIM card in Virginia, and that to get the receipt would have to drive 6-7 hours each way. He told me he needs the receipt of the transaction if I want my claim resolved so I had to waste 2 days of my time to drive to Virginia to get the evidence for him as XXXX XXXX said they couldn't email the receipt via email due to internal policy or security reason. I was able to get the receipt and sent him that. As a show of good faith, I also sent him proof of my other credit cards fraud that were swiped by the thieves as I mentioned previously. I sent him Proof of fraud at my other credit cards/banks including : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX cards. All of these credit cards detected fraud and auto-locked after 2-3 transactions, my Citi card was the only card that let the thieves do many more transactions. All three of these banks have refunded the amounts for the fraud dispute after their investigations and had concluded their investigation in my favor. At this point I simply wanted to put this all behind me and have the issue resolved. At this point after I sent him all the necessary evidence once again, he simply stopped responding to my calls, voicemails, and emails. I have proof of at least 15 different emails I have sent to XXXX and XXXX email addresses requesting to receive updates or to let me know if they atleast received the documents I was sending and if anything else was needed, and as usual got zero replies from Citi similar to the investigator being non responsive to calls/voicemails. The second big reason my claim was denied according to investigator XXXX XXXX was because he claimed he called the police department in XXXX where I filed my report and claimed the police told them it wasn't written/listed anywhere in my report that phones and wallets were stolen. I subsequently spoke to the XXXX police department and the detective who is handling the case. They said it is clearly listed in the report that four phones and wallets were stolen, and that no private investigator called him to confirm this information. They said that even if someone had called them, they wouldn't be obligated to give this information out to any investigator or  credit card company legally speaking. So how could he deny my claim based on these charges initially when it is clearly listed in the police report is beyond me. I also have 3 other witnesses who are part of the police report to corroborate my story. At this point, it was clear to me he was shamefully lying and I lost my trust completely in Citi and the process. I once again emailed the two Citi addresses provided and expressed my frustration about the non-responsiveness of Citibank and let them know that I am waiting to hear back as I have sent all the requested evidence for my initial and re-opened investigations. I was being made to jump through many hoops unnecessarily and waste hours upon hours calling into Citi daily even though all the requested evidence had been provided from my end. Once again, no response. I even wrote into the XXXX Police Department records division to request a copy of my police report, I once again had to collect numerous pieces of information to request this and waste more valuable time. They said it can take unto 6 weeks to get the report through the mail process and the best way was to come into the office in XXXX and pick up the report. This meant that I would now have to fly to XXXX again to prove my side of the story. Luckily my cousin who lives in XXXX was generous enough to go in to the station for me, as he is also part of the report as one of the four victims and get the report. He had to skip a day of medical school to do this as the records department is only open during week days. I have since scanned the police report which clearly mentions 4 stolen wallets and 4 stolen phones contrary to the investigators claim and emailed a copy to both Citi email addresses XXXX and XXXX along with my old credit card number. Recently, a Citi investigator named XXXX XXXX contacted me due to me filing 3 different complaints with Citi.  She told me that my case has been closed by Security Operations at Citi and I need to write into the Presidential Department, which is the reason for this lengthy letter. I told her that the previous investigator reopened my case and I have proof of that via the email thread and letter he sent me, however she said there's nothing she can do and that I can file a complain if I would like which I knew would not accomplish anything just like the previous 3 complaints I filed. She also uploaded half the documents and evidence I had provided to Citi into my case file for the Presidential Department to review. However, she said half of the evidence I sent was not uploaded and to resend it, which I did. Soon after, she also stopped responding to my calls, I would call her almost daily to see if she had uploaded my evidence into my case file so that by the time I wrote this letter to the Presidential Department, all the evidence would be there for them to look at ( since sending the police report and resending proof of my phone line being suspended/resumed and SIM card receipt which she said wasn't uploaded into my case file previously despite me sending it at least 3-4 different times ). I was not been able to get in touch with her for almost 2 weeks despite calling repeatedly, finally when she answered 2 weeks later, she said the case it completely closed on her end as well and there is nothing she can do, even though 2 weeks earlier she said the last missing piece of evidence I needed was the police report and that would resolve the re-opened case. She said write a letter to the presidential department and they would get in touch with me. I asked her for a phone number and email of Presidential Department as well, however she said they don't have email or Phone number and that you can only write them a letter. I asked her how would I know if they received my letter, since Citibank has been extremely non-responsive, unethical, and abusive regarding handling of this case and all my previous attempts to get in touch with them were mostly ignored. She said I have no other option than writing the letter and waiting for their response. So I wrote a lengthy letter and mailed it. Just as I feared, once again Citibank has not responded to me, it has been over 2 weeks since I mailed that letter. I always call Monday to Friday during business hours, but the Citi investigators phones are always turned off and go straight to voicemail. After leaving numerous voicemails, they never call back. 

In conclusion, I just want to request the the CFPB to please look into my re-opened investigation and have CitiBank refund me the money that was stolen from my credit card by the thieves as per their 'Zero Liability on Unauthorized Claims ' policy. This has been the worst and the single most frustrating experiences I have had to deal with as a customer of any company, financial or otherwise. Furthermore, I have provided all the evidence necessary including drivers license which clearly says on it that it is a reissued license by DMV, proof of fraud at other credit card companies, Police report, and proof of phone line and SIM Card. The unauthorized purchase amount of approximately {$3500.00} is a big amount for me and this whole process has caused me a lot of undue stress apart from the stress I was already dealing with from being robbed and losing my phones and all my valuable data and photo/video memories inside it. I have spent countless days and hours of my time trying to resolve this issue and have been ignored by the Citi Security Operations department. I would also like to take this opportunity to file an official complaint against Citi Investigators XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX from the Citi Security Operations department to the Presidential Department as well. His phone number is XXXX, I have filed many complaints to Citi customer  service as well due to the highly unethical and unprofessional behavior I experienced. Thank you so much for reading this, and I apologize for it being so lengthy. Please look into my case and help me have it resolved.

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 monetary relief