Consumer complaint received 2019-12-20
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
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:
While I was in XXXX MT someone hacked XXXX XXXX stores POS system and stole credit card numbers on file and made multiple fraudulent charges. I had purchased a ring from XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX so they had my account on file and my cc number was among those that were used to make fraudulent purchases. They charged {$2300.00} on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, CO, and then {$2100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX at a vendor shown as XXXX   in XXXX, CO. All CITI could tell me about XXXX   was that they were a jewelry store. They wont give me the name of the actual store and can not tell me what I supposedly even purchased there. I have search a lot on the internet and can not find any vendor in XXXX with the initials XXXX. A XXXX search for a credit card vendor code " XXXX '' also didn't turn up anything. 

I immediately contacted CITI to have them freeze my account when I saw the charges. They asked me to check and see if there were any other suspicious charges on the account. I saw one vendor XXXX  For {$80.00} that I did not recognize so I disputed that charge as well. When I got the dispute form for the XXXX  vendor I saw that they had a different DBA name that I recognized and so the charge was valid. I called the CITI Fraud  Department and told them that I recognized that particular charge and it was valid. I also submitted the paperwork. The guy I talked to in XXXX at the CITI Fraud department mis-understood me and changed the {$2100.00} charge at XXXX  to a valid charge as well. 

I have called the CITI Fraud department at least 6 times telling them they made a mistake and that XXXX  charge WAS fraud and they needed to remove the charge from my account. I also forwarded them the email from XXXX and my flight confirmation showing I was in XXXX, MT  when the purchases were made. Every time I called they assured me that they recognized it as a fraudulent charge and they would remove the charge within 2 billing cycles. One woman told me they were just waiting for the vendors bank to reimburse them for the charge before taking it off my account. Every month the charge would still be on my account and I would call CITI Fraud again to tell them to remove it and every time they told me they were going to remove the charge and any interest and fees in the next two billing cycles. They never did. 

Last week I logged on to my account to see if it had indeed been removed this time and of course it had not been. They had even put an alert on my account that I was delinquent in paying my credit card. I have an XXXX credit score and I have not used that credit card since disputing those two Jewelry store charges. CITI is no claiming that the XXXX  charge is valid but they wont tell me what evidence or reasoning they are even using to support the claim that it is valid. They won't even tell me the name of the Vendor or what I supposedly purchased from them. Per CITI they were supposed to have sent me written notification that the charge was deemed valid. They never did. 

In Short, CITI is claiming that that out of two charges, for almost identical amounts, that happened over two days, at two Colorado Jewelry stores, when I wasn't even in the state at the time, the charge where I sent them the email from the owner of XXXX confirming that his POS got hacked was a fraudulent charge but the second charge from XXXX, who nobody can identify is somehow a valid charge.

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