Consumer complaint received 2024-10-18
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (MA)

On XX/XX/year> I recieved an email stating that XXXX approved payment for XXXX XXXX. I do not have paypal or bitcoin so I called my bank ( Citibank, the number on the back of my debit card ) and notified them of the charges. They stated that no funds were actually taken and that completed the call. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I recieved a phone call from someone named " XXXX XXXX '' ( XXXX, ext XXXX ) and he said he was from the Citibank XXXX XXXX Department. Since I had called Citibank myself I had no reason to believe that he was an imposter. He claimed that several attempts were made to compromise my bank account. He stated that my funds were safe and asked if I would be interested in helping to catch the criminal who tried to take funds from my account. Over the course of several days we spoke over the phone and he sent me XXXX email addresses with IP addresses stating that multiple people were trying to obtain money from my account and that it seemed to be an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX'. He even had me screenshare my mobile phone stating that this was to provide protection on my mobile Citibank account and mobile phone. " XXXX XXXX '' stated that in order to arrest the criminals I needed to send {$30000.00} as a international wire transfer and that once the criminal was caught the funds would be voided and I would receive my {$30000.00} back into my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called me over the phone and walked me through the steps on my phone to send the wire transfer to someone with the name XXXX XXXX. On the phone he gave the name and international bank information. The bank was XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with an account number ending in XXXX and a reference number of XXXX. 
That day and the next several days I NEVER received a phone call, text or email from Citibank questioning me about the transfer. Considering the amount of money and the international wire the bank SHOULD have called me and I would have realized that this truly was a scam. 

On Friday XX/XX/XXXX, " XXXX '' called me several times and assured me that my account funds would be returned and all would be well. After XXXX weeks " XXXX '' told me that the person was captured and that I should see my funds back in my account soon. Two weeks passed and I became very skeptical and called Citibank again.

So I called the Citibank number on the back of my debit card and the Citibank representative over the phone stated that he believed these phone calls were made by imposters and that I was scammed and to immediately close the account. 

When I filed a complaint with Citibank they stated that they could not return my funds because the wire transfer was made through the mobile app and it is assumed that the account holder is making the transfer. When I explained that this was an intricate scam and that the bank should have verified this information with me they stated that I am responsible because I did not take responsibility to protect myself. This is absolutely MAD because any large amount of money that is being transferred ( especially internationally ) there needs to be many attempts made to speak with the account holder to confirm and verify that the account holder made this transaction.