Consumer complaint received 2024-10-24
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (NV)

XX/XX/year> I spoke with XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX. 
They told me about their product and they said they needed to hold a no charge reservation with my credit card in order to be able to speak further about their product. 
I never bought their product and have to date never received anything from this company. 
When I got off the phone with them I had an alert that they had charged my Citi credit card {$5300.00}. I called XXXX XXXX back and said I absolutely did not want their product and requested they refund the amount immediately. They said they would do that, but never did. 
When I contacted Citi Cards they took a fraud dispute and said don't worry, you are not responsible for the charges. Citi Cards has not taken my fraud dispute seriously and have been hazy at best about communication. Now they are saying they won't refund the amount which is unacceptable. 

When you look at my attached communication with Citi you can see that their responses are not documented and now when I ask to see any responses they are not posted and have been erased from Citi Cards Site. This is shady and clearly illegal. 

I tried to file another claim and they said they did that, but no record of this exists. I told them I would file a complaint with CFPB and the agent didn't know what that was. 

Here is part of my communication with Citi Cards : You sent me a notice saying there is an update to my fraud claim, but I don't see anything posted in online my account. 
I'm am highly disturbed by the fact you are not taking this claim seriously. This was a scam and rip off. There is no way I should be billed for this service. I have not received any service or any product from this scam company XXXX XXXX that claims to be in XXXX XXXX. I expect a credit to my account ASAP. 

XXXX XXXX On Tuesday, XX/XX/year> at XXXX XXXX  CST, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX wrote : You have requested more details in regards to the fraudulent charges of {$5300.00} to my XXXX Credit Card ending in XXXX. 

XX/XX/year>, Attn Citi Fraud Team, In regards to your letter. My response is below which states again this was a fraudulent charge. Your letter for additional information is attached to this email. 


First, you asked for documentation. There is no documentation. Let me explain. 


On XX/XX/year>, XXXX XXXX, who said he was with XXXX XXXX was talking to me about their fake product, He found me on XXXX via a fake ad. When we spoke after a while the guy said he needed a valid credit card to see the product. He never said he was going to charge anything to the card. This was a scam and unfortunately he did not provide any documentation saying Dear XXXX we are going to rip you off and we are organized crime in XXXX XXXX. I wish I had something in writing, but I do not. This was a scam and credit card fraud plain and simple. 


The product they were talking about was supposed to be an online photo and storytelling tool for real estate. They said I could not see this cutting edge Ai product unless I gave them a credit card to verify that I was really interested. Again, they never said they would charge this {$5300.00} amount, nor did I agree to that. I thought this was like when you give a credit card to hold a hotel room. 


After the call I researched the product they claimed they had and I could not find anybody using it. I called that XXXX person and said I dont want to move forward. That was XX/XX/year>. Thats also when I realized they had charged my card the entire {$5300.00} without my authorization. I asked that person via voice message to refund my card immediately and that's when I received no calls back. 


When I reached out to the same number the next day nobody picked up. I called multiple times and finally some guy who said he was XXXX XXXX in XXXX picked up and I clearly told him I was 100 % not interested in the product and refund my credit card in full immediately. He said he was on vacation and would address it after his time off. 

When he said he would not do the refund immediately and I realized this was a fraud scam that is when I called Citi Fraud and reported this. 


Respectfully, XXXX XXXX