Consumer complaint received 2015-03-23
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: MA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
Beware of Corporate Citizen 's Bank related to Retaliation for Posting Information and Reviews about a Security Breach in Online/Telephone Banking and for filing with the Attorney General : Five days ago I received a letter in the mail stating that all my bank accounts ( mine, my husband, XXXX our businesses, savings, and all XXXX children 's accounts ) would be summarily closed in 10 days, no reason given. I have been a customer at Citizen 's Bank for 15 plus years with impeccable credit and have never even bounced a check or had a late payment. Apparently it is Citizen 's prerogative and they can close your accounts with NO notice and for No reason! Apparently when I signed up 15 plus years ago, there was a box to check that allows them to do this, go figure? 
Nonetheless I do KNOW the reason why Corporate Citizen 's closed all my accounts!!! I have repeatedly written on social media, written to the AG about a MAJOR Security Issue at Citizen 's Bank and I believe shutting all my accounts is in RETALIATION for alerting other customers to the security flaw. The back story is : in XXXX XX/XX/2014 XXXX of my linked bank accounts were compromised. Someone called Citizen 's on an inside line ( pretext calling ) and said they were sitting with my husband in the local branch and that he needed help setting up online banking. Neither of us bank online. All the caller needed was the last XXXX of my social, then they set up a phoney email address and password, and voila they were into ALL my family and business linked accounts. Funniest thing that call was NEVER recorded, very odd since generally every time I call the bank I hear " you are on a recorded line ''. Once they got in, {$30000.00} was transferred/borrowed from a Home Equity Credit Line ( who has {$30000.00} sitting around anyway ) into linked accounts and then they went to ATM 's in XXXX and XXXX and in 6 hours withdrew {$30000.00} in increments of {$600.00} and NO ALGORITHM at Citizen 's picked this up??? I, the lowly customer, happened to notice the activity when I checked my balances that day! I do n't know about you but I have NEVER been able to withdraw more than {$400.00} in a given day without getting shut down. Needless to say, this is a major security breach. Citizen 's was clearly at fault and after two weeks returned the {$30000.00} to my credit line and only after I filed numerous police reports. However, the bank has consistently passed the buck by both not returning repeated phone calls and by not repairing the online/telephone banking issue. Also since the breach, my social security number along with my entire family, DOB, address have all been compromised. I have had to file Fraud Alerts and have had to put a Freeze on all of our Credit Reports for 7 years. At no time did Corporate Citizen 's Bank, XXXX XXXX in particular in the Office of the Chairman, ever take my calls, offer to help, give advice or even TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the Security Breach and/or consider paying for Life Lock or some such plan ( {$10.00} per month ). In fact, I only spoke with XXXX XXXX XXXX or XXXX ( my supposed point person at Citizen 's ) and he never returned any of my urgent calls even when I received the letter about the closing of all my accounts. Terrible customer service at Citizen 's Bank on the highest Corporate level. I have no problem with the line staff/tellers in the branches. They are doing the best they can given the circumstances.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation