Consumer complaint received 2024-05-29
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CT)

To begin, between the months of XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I was hit with several fraudulent charges to my account in rather large sums. Clearly, as is often the case, this was the result of some kind of security breach. As a result, I had to cancel and replace my credit card several times over a short period of time. These cards end in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX being the most recent. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the first instance of unauthorized activity happened shortly after receiving card XXXX. I received an unusual pop up message on my screen stating something along the lines of, CITI MC - Thank you for your recent payment of {$1500.00}. This immediately caught my attention and suspicions for two reasons 1 ) I had not authorized nor requested a payment transfer of {$1500.00} to CITI ; and 2 ) my account setting for automatic alerts of posted payments was set to OFF ( see page1 of attachments ). 

I immediately called Citi and my XXXX XXXX  to report the unauthorized activity. XXXX was able to stop the transfer of funds, and as a precaution, placed a temporary hold on further transfers from my account ending in XXXX. On this same date, I requested that CITI and XXXX open a report and start an investigation into the matter. 
Later, on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, I spoke with CITI agents and supervisors who could offer no further explanation about how this occurred. Yet, the canceled of stopped transfer from XXXX showed up as insufficient funds on my CITI account. Over another call, I spoke to an agent who was kind enough to at least refund the {$30.00} imposed penalty fee. A few days later, the information XXXX confirmed that the payment transfer was requested CITIs end and not initiated from XXXX. 

With a temporary hold still in place on my bank account XXXX, I continued to make frequent payments from a secondary account XXXX ( these XXXX accts are important as you will see ) on XX/XX/XXXX - {$1800.00} ; XX/XX/XXXX- {$2000.00} ; XX/XX/XXXX- {$10000.00} ; XX/XX/XXXX- {$1800.00} ; and XX/XX/XXXX - {$5000.00}. 

In XXXX however, a very distressing month for me, I experienced the sudden death of a very dear friend and the passing of our XXXX XXXX XXXX. It was during this difficult time the I made a very unfortunate error while attempting to make XXXX different payments. Following the receipt of a large deposit into my primary bank account XXXX I transferred payments on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2500.00} ; XX/XX/XXXX for {$1000.00} ; and XX/XX/XXXX for {$2500.00}. It wasnt until XX/XX/XXXX that I realized I mistakenly clicked on account XXXX to draw these payments for transfer. Unfortunately, this account did not have enough funds to cover these payments. If it's worth anything, I can show ( see page XXXX ) that there were more than sufficient funds XXXX to cover these payments. 

When I realized my mistake, I made numerous calls to CITI on XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; and XX/XX/XXXX hoping to resolve the issue by remitting immediate payment. By this time, however, my account was frozen had been sent for immediate review. CITI agents were only able to instruct me to wait for a letter from CITI that would further advise on the status of my account. Sadly, I was never offered a chance to explain my mistake, the extenuating circumstances happening in XXXX, nor prevent or repair any damage to my account. 
It was during this time, that I also received XXXX letters from XXXX notifying me of the XXXX payment transfers on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX. As you will note, ( see pages XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ) like the original unauthorized activity on XXXX, these letters show additional unauthorized payment transfers of large sums that I never alerted to. On XX/XX/XXXX, in addition to the {$2500.00} XXXX payment ( of my doing ) shows a second transfer of {$1000.00} occurring on this same day, which I did not authorize. A letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, again shows a second transfer of {$1000.00}, which I did not authorize. And on XX/XX/XXXX, a letter shows another unauthorized payment transfer of {$2500.00}! I admit, none of this makes sense but I can honestly confirm these transfers were not of my doing. As it pertains to XXXX, ( see page XXXX ) Ive included an attachment showing the funds were in my account at the time. 

To cross-reference, ( see page XXXX ) unlike the XXXX payments on XXXX resulting from my error noted as XXXX XXXX  under Standard Purchases, XXXX statement XXXX reflect these XXXX additional unauthorized to transfer of funds. I hope you can see why I am so concerned. Please know, I take full accountability for my oversite when drawing payments from the wrong account on XXXX XXXX, but I remain perplexed, and I am frustrated about the repeat of what appears to be ongoing fraudulent activity to my CITI account. 
Despite numerous attempts to contact you it was impossible for me to ever get ahead of these transactions. I did speak with a supervisor on XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX who told me she would forward my complaint to a higher level of management for review. She also assured me that I would have a chance to reconcile before my account closure was reported to XXXX. You can check my dated call records, but things were well beyond repair. 
I would add, upon receiving your letters regarding the XXXX payments and the closure of my account, I immediately remitted a payment of {$6000.00} in hopes to reverse damages. And on XX/XX/XXXX, I cleared the remainder of my roughly {$9000.00} remaining balance. The closure of my CITI account has now negatively impacted my credit score and I am desperately trying to do whatever I can to reverse this and regain my credit with CITI. I have already taken extra measures to better secure my credit, financial accounts, along with my identity.