Consumer complaint received 2025-09-17 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, At XXXX, I received a text message that resembled the ones the bank sends when it detects suspicious activity. I answered the text, thinking it was sent by my bank. Then someone pretending to be a representative of the bank called me. I was fooled and genuinely thought that I was talking with a representative who was trying to help protect my account. Then he made me believe that he was having trouble on his end. So, he sent me a link to a website that looked like the XXXX of the bank I use. Thinking that this was proof that he was an actual representative, I provided the information that the scammer needed to access my bank account. He made me think that all of that was necessary to save my account. Then, the scammer took XXXXXXXX XXXX from my checking account. Later that day, I got a call from an actual representative, who was inquiring about the large amount of funds being taken out of my account. I informed him that I did not authorize the transfer of those funds. So, he told me that they were going to halt the transaction and freeze my bank account to ensure that no one accessed the account while they did their investigation. So, the next day, XX/XX/year>. At about XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX my father and I went to a branch of my bank to get help from a representative. The representative helped me open a new account. Also, he informed us that the funds that the scammer tried to transfer were pending and under investigation. And we were told that the funds were recoverable. The representative wrote a report about what happened which included a timeline and all the events that happened. I did get advice to be more careful and to call the bank to inquire about any suspicious activity to prevent something like this from happening again. Three months pass, and I get a letter from the bank. The letter placed all the blame on me, and the funds were gone. So, I appealed the case again. Not because I thought that I wasn't responsible for what happened. I do blame myself for not being wiser about protecting my bank account. I went to the bank and appealed the case with the same representative. I wanted to know why they let the funds go. My father and I were told that the funds were there and the bank was investigating the fraudulent transfer. Then I got another letter that was like the last one. They blamed me again for not taking the right steps to protect my account. I already knew that. We went back to the branch of the bank and discussed with the same representative. He was very helpful and helped us appeal the case again. He did give us a number to contact the representatives who work on the fraud cases directly. So another month goes by, and I call them to check on the status of the case. The same result. It was denied again, and they did not explain why the funds were let go. I asked them to appeal the case again and to read the report that the representative at the bank made. So a few weeks go by, and I get a call from an investigator working on the case. She asked me for the timeline of the events that led to my account being compromised and the loss of XXXX $ from my account. So, I told her what I told the representative at the bank and what I wrote here. And she told me to take into consideration that the status of some transactions or transfers does take a few hours to update. What she told me made no sense. Many hours had passed by the time my father and I went to the bank and talked with the representative. There was more than enough time for the status of the transfer to update. I am not sure if she said it as a way to cover up any failure from the bank on keeping the funds that were being investigated safe. So, on XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the bank and requested copies of the banking account statement for XX/XX/year>, the month when everything started. I took those copies with me to the XXXX XXXX Police Department and filed a report. I gave them the phone number and text messages that the scammers used, and they took a picture from the banking account statement that had the fraudulent transfers. 
I will provide all the information that I gave the police department ( phone number, text messages, and the statement ). Also, the bank I have been talking about is Citibank.

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 explanation