Consumer complaint received 2022-02-22
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:
XX/XX/2021 : Was out to dinner and my XXXX debit card was declined. I called Citibank to find out and they said there was a charge for {$4900.00}. This is more than what I had in my account. I was told the charge was made with my XXXX debit card number from XXXX XXXX XXXX. I told them I did not authorize this, and it was not me who made the charge. I disputed the charges, and they closed the XXXX debit card and said they would send a new one out. At this point the charge for {$4900.00} was PENDING. 

XX/XX/2021 : The unauthorized charge for {$4900.00} POSTED to my account. Citibank did not stop the charge even though they knew it was not authorized. What wasnt covered by what was in my account went into overdraft protection. I now have {$4200.00} on my overdraft. 
I filed a police report on XX/XX/XXXX. I've disputed this twice with the Citibank fraud line and each time they respond that I am responsible for the charges. I went into a branch a month ago and have been trying to dispute this with a branch banker. I call weekly and I'm told they're still investigating. 

Both myself and the local police officer have been calling XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXt. They answered once and told the officer that they had been 'hacked ' and were refunding and would refund me. That never happened. Now when the officer calls, or I try to call... they either don't answer or they pick up and put me on hold immediately, we're ghosted. 

If you search on the Secretary of State North Carolina for " XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  '' you will see that the owner, XXXX XXXX XXXX actually owns several cabinet door companies ( and other wood working businesses ) and he's been reported to the XXXX. Last I checked he had five active LLCs and six dissolved LLCs. Reading reviews, his company frequently puts fraudulent charges on people 's credit cards and then tells them to complain to the credit card companies. In XX/XX/2021 placed a small order a cabinet door and drawer front from a company called " XXXX XXXX XXXX, '' which is registered through an agent but the filing address is the same and after researching, I discovered it's one of the many companies XXXX XXXX XXXX owns. His company held onto my debit card number for over 9 months and then put a fraudulent charge on it through one of his other companies ( XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  ). When I read reviews for some of the companies XXXX XXXX XXXX owns, I discovered there are others out there that had the same thing happen to them. 

This is criminal activity and nobody is stopping them. Citibank is not giving me the protection I am entitled to under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act that covers when there is unauthorized use of a debit card and the bank is notified within 2 business days. In my case, I notified the bank the same day the fraudulent charge was made ... before it even posted. It's been over two months.

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