Consumer complaint received 2022-09-30
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
In short, I was subject to fraud on my CITIBANK checking account on XX/XX/XXXX, and upon investigation, CITIBANK denied my claim on XX/XX/XXXX, responding, ' ... these transfers and the activity appears to be consistent with your normal banking activities. As such, we are unable to honor the request for reimbursement. ' I asked them to reopen the investigation 2 more times and received a similar denial on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, 'With the information we had, it wasn't enough to support your claim and resolve the dispute in your favor. ' FACTS : On XX/XX/XXXX, a man called me claiming to be from CITIBANK and said he was calling because there seemed to be suspicious activity on my account. He sent me emails while we were on the phone with CITIBANK letterhead so it looked convincing. He asked for personal information which I gave him ( stupid ) b/c I was panicked. I was logged into my CITI account while I was on the phone with him watching as the funds were being deducted from my account. There were 2 withdrawals made for : {$2400.00} and {$2400.00} within a second of each other which is not in keeping with my normal banking activities as CITIBANK claimed above.

Once I got off the phone with him, I called CITIBANK back right away and realized it was fraud because customer confirmed, no one had called me from the bank. I was transferred to multiple people over the course of TWO hours, my call was dropped twice and no one could get me to the right dept. I finally landed with the right department, explained what happened and asked for a hold to be put on my account. 

The next day, I went to my local branch in Mt. XXXX, NY, because I had to talk to a human IRL to get to the bottom of this. The manager and her associate were AWESOME! They said no one I had talked to the day before had put a hold on my account so that was almost 24 hrs that the criminals could have withdrawn more funds!! Luckily there wasn't more to take! There were also no notes, nothing written in my file from the 6 people I spoke to the previous day after being on the phone for 2 hours. The manager looked at the emails they sent and thought it might be an inside job because they looked realistic. She helped me open 2 new checking accounts because of the 2 that had been compromised. I called CITIBANK again to put in a request for an investigation.

No one from CITIBANK ever called me to ask what happened after any of the 3 investigation requests I put in so they have NO information about what happened. I've been banking with CITIBANK for over 20 years and this is outrageous. Every time I call, it's a minimum of 2 hours because I keep getting transferred to the wrong area. Also, the manager at the branch could only help me so much. She said she has to call the same number for fraud that I have, there is no direct line in which I thought was terrible. 

Please let me know if there's any additional information you need from me? 

Thank you! 
XXXX

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