Consumer complaint received 2023-09-05
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (OH)

On XX/XX/XXXX, someone made charges ( without the card present ) at a Best Buy location in XXXX Florida. ( I live in XXXX Ohio ).

One charge was for {$740.00}, the other for {$640.00}. 

I have text alerting on my account, so when the first charge alerted me ( {$740.00} ) I immediately reported it as fraudulent. On the phone with the Tier 1 customer support, I explained the situation and they said they'd cancel the card and issue a new one. The same day, the 2nd charge for {$640.00} came through ( when the new card hadn't even been mailed to me yet ). 

I received communications ( attached ) saying that they opened a case and were investigating. 
I called back again, and they escalated me to the Security Operations team. The person I spoke to then transferred me over to another team called the " Citi Consumer Protection Team ''. He cancelled that new card ( that hadn't even been mailed yet ), and issued another one. But then after I asked him how that could've even happened, he said that Best Buy ( the card is managed by citi, but it's the Best Buy credit card ) has a process where the employees can look up the card info for people if they don't have it, and it's possible that it was either an improperly trained employee, or potentially someone having a fake ID with my information on it. He then gave me reference number XXXX for my claim I have a Best Buy Rewards account which shows purchases on the account and where they were made and also gives me access to digital receipts. Attached are documents and screenshots showing the progression of events. The fraudulent purchases made the purchases at a Best Buy location in XXXX, FL, and then waited until the XXXX, and then exchanged one of the originally purchased items for different items at a 2nd Florida Best Buy location, and then waited until the XXXX, then exchanged the other items for store credit ( that looks like it's being applied to a gift card of some sort ) at a 3rd Florida Best Buy Location. 

Best Buy 's security operations team sent me a letter 2 days ago stating that " based on their investigation, they determined I'm responsible for the charges '' and one of the reasons they cite is that I didn't dispute the transactions. However, the attached paper trail shows that I did, and they acknowledged it. 

On top of that, I did actually use the card here in XXXX Ohio where I live on the day the fraudulent transactions occurred, once at the XXXX, Ohio Home Depot location, and at another grocery store called XXXX 's, the fraudulent transactions occurred less than 2 hours after that. I explained to them over the phone that would be physically impossible or me to use my physical card here in Ohio, and then be at a Florida best buy location less than two hours after that. The member of the Consumer Protection Team chuckled and agreed with me, and even said on the phone that the member of the Security Operations team " must be a new guy '' or " isn't doing his job right '' ( the calls are recorded, so that can be verified ).