Consumer complaint received 2025-06-04 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: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
The facts in contention are as follows : On or around XX/XX/year>, I applied for, and was granted a full refund by XXXX XXXX for a cancelled round-trip ticket in the amount of {$1000.00}. ( The ticket was purchased through XXXX ). I was informed by XXXX XXXX that my full refund would be returned to XX/XX/XXXX, and that XXXX would forward this full refund to me with no cancellation or administrative fee. 
On XX/XX/year>, I called a phone number listed in XXXX XXXX as XXXX and asked for an update on the refund. The phone number was ( XXXX ) XXXX. This phone number is a fraud/spoof number pretending to be associated with XX/XX/XXXX as I soon realized. ( see Attachment A for Official Statement from the REAL XXXX ). 
When I innocently called the fraudulent number to ask for my refund, I was given profuse apologies and was reassured that they would send my XXXX XXXX refund immediately, as soon as I provided my card information. I did so. The agent identified himself as XXXX. 
I checked my Citi Bank balance, only to discover to my horror that instead of a refund of {$1000.00}, my account had been debited {$470.00}. I called XXXX XXXX, and they told me that they had already sent my full refund, with no cancellation fee, to XXXX, and that I should receive it soon. They gave me the REAL number for XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX. The REAL agent told me that they had indeed received the full refund from AA, and it was on its way to me. They completely denied taking {$470.00} from me and had no knowledge of a XXXX working with/for them. They advised me that I had been defrauded. Very shortly thereafter, I received my {$1000.00} refund from the REAL XX/XX/XXXX ATTEMPTED DISPUTE RESOLUTION WITH CITI Of course, I filed a claim with Citi on or around XX/XX/year>. Claim XX/XX/XXXXXXXX. I was very disappointed when the claim was immediately declined, stating that I had received my {$1000.00} from XXXX, hence there was no longer a dispute. I was appalled to see that the Investigator COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD the premise of the dispute. It was not the {$1000.00} that was in question, it was the fraudulent {$470.00} taken by the fake XX/XX/XXXX 
I have been tangling with Citi over this for almost 9 months. Unacceptable. Citi does not appear to have done a meaningful investigation. I finally reached an excellent Supervisor, XXXX, on or around Friday XXXX XXXX and she completely understood my actual complaint. She advised me to get an official statement from XXXX, stating that the fake number ( the one attached to the theft of my money ) is NOT associated with the REAL XX/XX/XXXX, and that AA refunded me fully with no cancellation fee, and the REAL XX/XX/XXXX forwarded my {$1000.00} to me with no cancellation fee. I have this in writing, please see Attachment " Real XX/XX/XXXX ''. 
The final damning evidence is an e-mail sent to me by the fraudsters, see Attachment " FakeXX/XX/XXXX '', claiming that they had taken {$470.00} from my account as a cancellation fee. They had a green box for me to acknowledge this. I refused to click it as a signature.And there was no hotel booked, at all. 
I called the fraudsters on Sunday XXXX of XXXX, and confronted them with this evidence, the agent XXXX started shouting at me, telling me that HE got me my refund only because they took the cancellation fee, that there would have been no refund without the cancellation fee. He became disjointed and angry and hung up on me. I believe this is a scam from XXXX. 

All of my attempts to appeal, have been largely ignored and/or misunderstood. I have tried at least 20 times, with fruitless phone calls to Citi, and there seems to be a language barrier, the dispute center is staffed by Off-shore folks.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief