Consumer complaint received 2023-02-06
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: VA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021, I decided to order new checks from my checking account at CitiBank, using the internet. When I clicked onto what I believed to be the Citi-Bank site a red flag appeared saying my account was frozen, for some reason and I needed to call the number that they gave. I foolishly called the number and was told that someone in Texas or Ohio had tried getting {$5000.00} from my account. It looked suspicious, so they called me, to see if it was legitimate. I told him the charge was not correct and of course he was going to get the " freeze '' lifted from my account to do something to protect my account in the future. He strung me along for about 4 hours and by the time I realized what was going on they had lifted two wire transfers from my account one for {$49000.00} and another for {$49000.00} with service fees for each one of {$17.00} each. I turned off my computer before he completed whatever he was doing and he got very upset throwing out swear words. He then came back on the phone and was talking fast and apologizing for it taking so long and started giving me a bunch of numbers that I don't know what they were. One of them he said was a " claim number '', XXXX and he said his employee number was " XXXX '' I asked for his name and he said it was XXXX XXXX. I do not believe that any of these numbers or names mean anything. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I reported the event to Citi-Bank . Then filed a complaint with the XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX  Their case number is XXXX and the deputy that took the report was XXXX XXXX. After that I also filed a report with the FBI. 

During the phone exchange on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX I got a text on my cell which I believe is from CitiBank asking me if I made a wire transfer from my account, one text was for {$49000.00} and the other for {$49000.00} as shown in attached screen shot of my phone. Both texts were answered NO. 

I noticed the transfers had gone off of my account and called the fraud department to understand why. They said it was too late to get them back, but they were able after a few days to return {$49000.00} to my account, but the XXXX  who called kept getting the amounts confused. When I questioned the other amount they said it was gone and nothing they could do about it. In a few days I called them back and they said I needed to fill out some forms notarized and send back to them, which I did. The about 2 weeks later I got a form letter from them stating they were not returning my entire {$99000.00}! They had already returned $ {$49000.00} so I knew they were at fault. 

The fraud claim number at XXXX XXXX The claim was denied again on XXXX because of " No new information was received or discovered that would change the denial decision '' This came after we sent the additional document they requested ( attached ) I am still waiting to get my money back!

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