Consumer complaint received 2025-01-18 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I am absolutely outraged at Citizens Bank 's false and misleading marketing, failure to abide by the EFTA, improper investigations of fraudulent transactions, lack of consumer protections for their customers, and most importantly, knowingly making false claims and fraudulent misrepresentation. I am an elderly, low income individual who lost {$1000.00} after being victimized by highly sophisticated financial fraud. I received a call on XX/XX/XXXX from a phone number that was showing up on my caller id as XXXX XXXX, and indeed, when one dialed back the same exact telephone number, the call would direct to the XXXX XXXX business entity. I later learned that this call was utilizing the process of spoofing, with the caller spoofing the XXXX XXXX caller ID. As an elderly individual, and one whose native language is not English, one can imagine that numerous scammers and hackers have attempted to defraud me, but this was not a situation that I have ever encountered before. Thus no one can make the claim that I have made numerous reports and am engaging in some kind of pattern of reporting fraud that would lead a banking institution to be suspicious of me ( although, even if that were the case, it would be Citizens Bank 's responsibility to terminate their relationship with me, not to continue doing business with me for several years and then suddenly failing to take my claim seriously ). On the very same day that I received this fraudulent call impersonating XXXX XXXX, I noticed an unauthorized transaction of XXXX from my checking account. I reported the fraudulent transaction on the very same day, and was given assurance that the matter would be investigated. I first called the local branch ( in XXXX, XXXX ), reported my concern, and additionally called the company headquarters and gave my report to a representative by the name of XXXX ( Claim number XXXX ). I immediately changed my ATM card to prevent any further fraudulent transactions from occurring while awaiting further details from Citizens Bank. At this time, the transaction was still showing up as on " Hold, '' and I had made sure to instruct the bank to not under any circumstances authorize this payment. The recipient of these funds was listed as " XXXX XXXX XXXX, '' an entity I had never heard of before and one that I did not have a transactional record with in all my years of banking with Citizens Bank. I was shocked to receive notice on XX/XX/XXXX that this transaction was never paused despite being reported same-day, and that I would not be refunded because the investigation concluded that nothing erroneous had occurred. I received a letter in writing stating " The service provider, XXXX XXXX Sent Money, is solely responsible for the transfer of the funds. We recommend working directly with the merchant to come to an equitable resolution. '' This is a false claim and fraudulent misrepresentation for several reasons, which I will outline shortly. After looking into this matter, it is clear from numerous national reports that I am not the first American to be victimized in such a way, and that banking institutions are aware of similar cases ; Citizens Bank could have compared my story with thousands of others to ascertain its validity. Moreover, the letter regarding said investigation is brief and almost seems automated, as if no one looked into this urgent and distressing matter at all. A thorough investigation would have brought up that : consumers who do not suspect fraud would not inconvenience themselves by changing their ATM card, consumers who do not suspect fraud would not have reported the concern on the same day that a transaction occurred, there is no record of me ever having made a payment to this specific recipient and thus this payment is uncharacteristic of my transaction history, and there is no record of me having ever made an XXXX XXXX payment of this precise amount ( {$1000.00} ) thus this payment is even more uncharacteristic of my transaction history. In fact, XXXX XXXX is a payment method I never use in general, with **no previous** record of my ever having used it. Moreover, the merchant name changing over the course of Citizens Bank 's investigation is highly suspicious and prevented me from having communicated with XXXX XXXX directly to even attempt to resolve the matter through them, as Citizens Bank suggested much too late, 12 days after the fraudulent transaction. First it was listed in my bank statement as " XXXX XXXX  XXXX, '' and then suddenly the merchant name changed to " XXXX XXXX. '' I should also note that other banks are double and triple confirming, via two factor authentication and other methods, that their customers are the ones authorizing a transaction. Their mobile apps can tell when a consumer is on the phone while a transaction is being made, and often prevent transactions from going through if they suspect a customer is simultaneously on the phone with a fraudster. Moreover, a transaction does take some time to clear, and Citizens Bank had ample notice, given that my transaction was on a " Hold '' for over 24 hours, and absolutely did not have to be authorized after I gave my explicit request for it not to be. After receiving this notice ( XX/XX/XXXX, Claim Number XXXX ) that clearly indicates a complete lack of concern that I *** can not pay any of my bills**** without this money as a recently widowed woman who lives with a single income in the most expensive city in the nation, I immediately called both XXXX XXXX as per CB 's suggestion and followed up with my local branch. XXXX XXXX, on two separate phone calls, confirmed to me what Citizens Bank probably already knows : that they do not deem themselves liable for any fraudulent transactions because as per their T & C, they consider security to be the consumer 's sole responsibility and treat " XXXX XXXX '' like regular cash. I know that Citizens Bank is fully aware of XXXXXXXX XXXX policies regarding fraudulent transactions utilizing their platforms because Citizens Bank offers their mobile app through the XXXX XXXX, meaning that they have to abide by all XXXX terms themselves in order to do business with XXXX. They deliberately did not suggest that I communicate with XXXXXXXX XXXX on the date that I reported my concerns, and instead waited until XX/XX/XXXX to mail me a notice suggesting I communicate with XXXXXXXX XXXX. At that point, the transaction had gone through, and I was ineligible for filing a dispute with XXXX XXXX. Moreover, they are fully aware that consumers can not recover funds via XXXX XXXX, which XXXX confirmed for me when I called their support line. It seems that this was Citizens Bank 's way of giving me a false sense of security by having me waste time trying to communicate with XXXX when they are fully aware that this is a fruitless endeavor. The XXXX representative I spoke to also told me something interesting : that once a dispute is filed with an individual 's banking institution, XXXX is legally barred from filing a duplicate dispute, as per their policies. This is the third reason that Citizens Bank was lying when they recommended working directly with XXXX : they made that suggestion on XX/XX/XXXX, after I had filed a dispute with Citizens Bank and they are aware that XXXX XXXX does not pause or reverse transactions if a dispute has already been filed with one 's banking institution. I also followed up with my local branch ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ) by calling this location and speaking with bankers familiar with me. The representative I spoke to there seemed immediately aware that the story I was narrating to her indicated a hacked account. How is it possible that two different representatives of the same exact bank are coming to these wildly different conclusions? And how was she able to so quickly ascertain that this transaction was deeply uncharacteristic of my transaction history? Given that I have no other records of any XXXX XXXX payments ever sent. That's a rhetorical question, and the answer to it is that Citizens Bank clearly has had other consumers experience my predicament, and are trying to evade compensating us by claiming that the fraudulent charges are legitimate. I was given case number XXXX for this second investigation into my claim. I am pretty upset that the local branch apparently had the capacity to open an investigation this entire time but CHOSE to direct me to their national branch on XX/XX/XXXX, when I first called. There is an overall dysfunction with this banking institution that has left me in a bureaucratic nightmare of being passed along from person to person to person, department to department, company to company. From filing a police report to opening up two separate investigations to calling XXXX. From XXXX telling me to contact my bank to my bank telling me to contact XXXX, I am exhausted from the sheer volume of calls I have needed to place. As I stated, English is not my native language an this process is extra difficult when one accounts for that communication barrier. It has officially been 27 days without my money and counting, while my bills accrue and interest piles up. This is not only different from how other banks handle these types of complaints, but also a shameful and disgusting way to treat senior citizens. I am not sure they can even claim that I behaved negligently, as I have somehow survived all 72 years of my life not having been the victim of fraud or identity theft, and Citizens Bank is ignoring the fact that just by picking up the phone that day, I unwillingly confirmed some information for the caller, who appeared to already have a lot of personal data on me and was just waiting to confirm whether the telephone number they had on file was an active line. Even without willingly giving personal information, the very fact that I picked up the phone to this scammer signaled to them that this line they were trying was active, and that it was linked to my name. One a scammer has your phone number and name, they have enough data to proceed with attempting to uncover other details about you given the lack of privacy regulations in the United States as well as the constant " leaks '' of classified data and " hacks '' of major networks that expose consumer data. Citizens Bank is perfectly aware of how many recent data breaches have exposed consumer data. I am concerned that Citizens Bank is habitually violating the EFTA, and I am also concerned that Citizens Bank is engaging in false and misleading marketing by advertising their XXXX hotline for reporting fraud, leading one to believe that there is a department designed to investigate and mitigate or prevent fraud, when in fact their consumers are left to fend for themselves. It would be interesting to uncover what percentage of consumers actually have their claims looked at and what percentage have their funds restored to their accounts out of the total number of reports that this bank receives. If all cases are just getting this generic letter I received, then we know that this hotline is just for show and leads to no meaningful outcome apart from possibly delaying a consumer from contacting other authorities like the CFPB and FDIC so that Citizens Bank can yet again evade responsibility. And one more thing that makes Citizens Bank different from other financial institutions : Citizens Bank habitually calls their customers whenever funds on their accounts are low/their account is overdrawn. Other banks are currently sending out emails about how they " never call '' their customers, as a way of warning them that any calls can potentially be scams. Because I received so many ( legitimate ) calls from Citizens Bank over the years, receiving this fraudulent call from XXXX XXXX ( allegedly ) actually never raised any eyebrows for me, because unlike customers at other banks, I don't remember ever getting a notice that banks don't call customers to report suspicious activity on their account. I was completely in the dark about this scam and am now in a serious financial predicament as a XXXX  citizen with just my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX as my income.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation