Consumer complaint received 2020-04-20
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (FL)

COMPLAINT : Sears Citi MasterCard fraud team is in denial of fraud in lieu of evidence and three other cards who determined fraud in a four way identity theft and fraud scam. The Federal Trade Commission states that card holders are not responsible for fraud and are entitled to their account information from the Bank Card companies. Sears Citi policy statements of denying fraud is the opposite of FTC and Florida state governments definition of identity theft fraud. 

From the beginning the experience with the Sears Citi fraud team was elusive compared to the other three companies who quickly determined fraud. Citi Sears intentionally avoided giving me statement information for seven months and have refused to give me the fraudulent application information that was critical component of fraud in the other three accounts who determined fraud. It is inappropriate to rule against me while Sears Citi is intentionally withholding information. Their excuses are ambiguous and continue to shift. In essence, the fraud team is aligned with the identity thief and their attitude encourages fraud by falsely attempting to blame the victim to hold responsible a system culturally biased against women dependent upon a husbands income. In this case husband has turned out to be a con artist. This is not just a marital issue, but identity theft crimes have been committed using my good credit, social security information and misleading information to be added to my two existing accounts as an authorized user and the fraudulent creation of two new credit card accounts in my name without my knowledge or permission. And in the case of XXXX XXXX XXXX card, the purchasing transactions are probably wire fraud. I invite any independent third party to review the ten months of my documentation and evidence by the three credit card companies to determine otherwise. 

This Sears Citi MasterCard account is one of four charge card accounts reported on my XX/XX/2019 FTC report of identity theft totaling over {$25000.00} balances by former con artist husband whom I am divorcing. Three of the other card accounts have acknowledged fraud and removed their balances : XXXX XXXX ; Citi Simplicity and XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX was an existing account like the Sears Citi whereas Citi Simplicity and XXXX XXXX XXXX were new accounts opened fraudulently. 

From the beginning Sears Citi account has been uncooperative : ( 1 ) Initially told me they could not help as fraud was not possible in a marital situation ( 2 ) Mis-represented and delayed for seven months giving me requested statements for me to evaluate the identity theft transactions as the mail was hidden by my husband. ( 3 ) Have refused to give me requested application profile copies of husband fraudulently adding himself as an authorized user to my account. ( 4 ) Gave me non sensible excuses ruling against me. Excuses include : a ) no such thing as marital fraud ; b ) I must have known about the fraud since I did not report it ; c ) I benefitted from the fraud ; d ) if fraud, why no police report ; etc All of these excuses to rule against me addressed in many months of correspondence. 

In the other three fraudulent accounts it was determined in the application processes were fraudulent -- identity thieves tend to be repetitive. It was only after I appealed to Sear Citi Bank president 's office after seven months that the statements were finally provided which show purchasing patterns and maxing out the balances identical to the other three fraudulent accounts. 

The appeal I provided to the presidents office included a folder full of correspondence confirming the fraud acknowledgments by the other three companies and the back and forth letters between Sears Citi representatives and me. The letters not only showed my numerous requests for account statements, but that I even sent back the irrelevant information they were sending so they could see what I was receiving -- thinking it was a mistake. Now I know it was intentional as they kept sending mis-information. The presidents office finally committed to send my statements after seven months of effort and I did receive them. But I never have received the application profile I requested numerous times verbally and in writing. My appeal to the presidents office was rejected, basically repeating the same obtuse reasons of their staff. 

On numerous occasions I was assured by staff that my account statements would be sent and on three occasions the same summary statement of credits and impossible interpretation of the numbers were mailed to me. I even mailed them back for the fraud team to see what I was actually receiving. I now believe it was intentional to prevent me from comparing to the other companies statements to match the trends and spending habits that were previously deemed fraudulent. 

Thank you for reviewing my concerns with my Sears Citi MasterCard which I cancelled in XX/XX/2019 once I discovered the four way credit card scheme.