Consumer complaint received 2025-01-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX, a payment was made to my Citi bank card for the amount of XXXX. While on the phone the automated voice on the phone advises the payment was non-reversible once it was made to my account. After the payment was made it showed that it was posted to my account. I thought since the recording said it was not reversable the payment was good. After that the scammer had me pay him for making the payment. He even made another payment on the account for XXXX and some change. The problem came up when the scammer reversed the payment to my Citi bank card. I wasnt notified that the payment was reversed, and no investigation was made on the reversed payment. When I called on XXXX I spoke with an agent named XXXX  employee ID: XXXX to get a copy of my statement showing the payments to give to the police dealing with my case the Citi bank agent denied me copy. I advised I needed a copy of the statement to show the police so they could try to catch the person who scammed me, I was again denied a copy of the statement. Businesses must provide a copy of the statement within XXXX  days, but I was denied this right. The FCRA states that Citi bank is required to provide business transactions to help victims document fraudulent charges or payments. I asked if there was anything I could do about the charges, but she said in so many words that I would have to pay the debt and no dispute was offered. No claim was submitted for my claim of theft either. Under the Fair Credit Act of 1970, I should have been allowed to dispute, but none was offered. Under the Fair Credit Act my credit report has been negativity impacted due to Citi Bank refusal to provide me with statement showing fraudulent payments made to my account. In turn there is inaccurate information on my credit report. The scammer primary target is black women with lower economic status so when they report the economic crime commit against us, we are often times made to feel like the scammer and not the victim. I feel that the scammer in the case has relied on the fact black women are treated differently when they report a crime of theft. When I spoke to the local police that said they were surprised my financial institutions were not trying to help me recover my money. I also spoke to the state attorneys office, and they expressed shock on how I was treated by my bank and credit card company. The person at the state attorney office advises me to seek legal advice or go to the media for how this person is able to abuse women with children and the way I was treated after being scammed. I was able to track down from a XXXX  group called XXXX  is that your man in XXXX  and XXXX and there was at least XXXX women in XXXX or XXXX  that this person has scammed. He has even made threats that he will XXXX  woman or their family. He also made threats to harm me also. This person is a monster and needs to be caught so I dont understand why Citi bank is denying me a copy of my statement. I feel like Citi Bank is helping this scammer by not working with the police to try and catch this person. This person has caused me serious emotional stress and Im also in fear for my life after learning that this person has made threats to XXXX  others. He also made threats to me and knows my address. My financial institutions have let me down in this situation. I had thoughts of giving up on my life cause this situation has caused my credit to drop and Im struggling to get back financially. And instead of getting help when I was already in a tough situation, I felt like a victim all over again when I tried to get justice for a crime committed against me. 
Backstory 
I met this person who told me their name was XXXX XXXX last name started with a S. I think it was supposed to be XXXX. I found out on XXXX  that his real name is XXXX XXXX XXXX because he had me send a XXXX  to XXXX to that person. I went online yesterday morning and was able to find out his real name. He is a known scammer from what I found out on my search of his name online. I even found news articles on him doing check fraud in the past. I know this was him because we XXXX before, and this was the same person from the dating app. He scammed me for a total amount of XXXX. 
Me and XXXX met on XXXX XXXX app. On the app he claimed he was from XXXX XXXX. We exchanged numbers on the app. When we first talked, he said he wanted to help me and my kids out financially. He also stated he wanted to date me, and he wanted his mate to not be struggling financially. He spoke about the holidays coming up and all the things I could buy my sons.  At first, I was resistant to him offering his help. He then said things like well you want to continue to struggle.  He said he had all this money from business loans and from his business being successful. He also said I could work for his smoke shop that he claimed to own in XXXX He also spoke about owning an insurance company with                his family. He also said he worked for XXXX XXXX XXXX. So, he wanted to help me as a single mother and as his future mate. He asked me what was something I wanted to achieve if I had more money to do it. I said I wanted to get a truck for my food trailer. He was like I can help you do that. He said he was able to help me with my credit cards because he could write some of it off as charity for helping someone in need. He also said he wanted to offer me employment for his smoke shop. He said I could do some admin work for his company and help him pay some people he own for different reasons. He said he needed access to my bank login information so he could deposit my first work check which would be a XXXX  Bonus and sign on bonus. I said I didnt want to share my bank login information. He advises me that he didnt need my money and he just wanted to help me and my kids. He said advise me to order check paper so I could print out my work check myself, so he wont have to get into my bank account. He even offered to pay off my house, but I refused. He asked me what my biggest bill was. I told him my credit card bills were my highest bill. That way he can save on his taxes and help me. He made it seem like he really wanted to help me.  The first help he offered was for me to pay my credit card with his business account in the amount of XXXX on XXXX. He provided me with what he said was his business account number and routing number. I asked him several times if this was his account because I dont want to get in trouble. He assured me this was his account. He even asked for my name and address to report on his business taxes. He said you cant get in trouble for me paying your bills.  He assured me the payment would be good. I called and made the payment on my credit card. Once the payment was made it was supposed to be non-reversable. He told me to check the balance on my card and it should be XXXX  available. After the payment was made, he advised me that I would have to pay him half of the amount he paid for the credit card bill. He said go out and buy yourself something nice and Ill pay that off for you too. I spent my part of the card on something too, thinking he was just going to pay it off like he said. He said the next time he would pay off my card and I wouldnt have to pay him. He had me find out my daily max and what was available on my cards.  He had me set a pin on my credit card also. He had me open a XXXX account to send XXXX  to XXXX XXXX on XXXX He told XXXX XXXX  was his sister and that he got her a salon. He told me to go to my bank and do a cash advance on my credit card for XXXX  He then had me send a XXXX  payment in the amount of XXXX on XXXX  to his supposed to be cousin named XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  While I was at XXXX  he had me take out XXXX from my credit card and XXXX  to XXXX  him that to XXXX XXXX XXXX. A few days later, he had me check my cards and pay off XXXX more of my other cards. He even paid off a card I had that was closed so that kind help put my mind at ease that he was really in my life to help me and my kids. After the payment was made, he had me send him XXXX and some more money on XXXXXXXX to pay him for XXXX other credit cards. I also purchased a gift card for XXXX on XXXX. The gift card was supposed to be payment for him paying off my credit cards. After he paid the cards off that was when things started to change between us. At that point I started to question why he never asked, he never mentioned me having to pay him to pay off my credit cards. His response was this was only for the first time, and I would soon have some money once I started working for his company. He kept requesting money from me. Till I was so broke I didnt even have money to buy me or my kids food. After my cards were paid off and I started to feel like maybe I was being taken advantage of because he kept asking me for money and the way he was talking to me. I started to feel afraid and bullied by him. I texted this to him too.  When I talked to him, he cussed me out and said he doesnt want to deal with me if I think he is a scam when he is really trying to help me. He said he would reverse all the payments he made on my cards and say I stole from him. He even sent me a picture of a law officer he said was his cousin. He said he would report me to her. He also said if he ever saw me, he would get violent with me. He also said you were in debt when I meet you. I advised him that I was but I was paying my bills and that I would be in worse debt cause he had me do those cash advances and pay him from my credit card.  I was afraid he would ruin my credit because he had me run up XXXX  of my cards and I paid him already so I would lose that also. I would be in financial ruin. He threatened me a few times by saying you got your bills paid and you spend money on camara.  I asked him not to do that. He said he wont do it. He said I could get some money if I deposit a check for XXXX and some change and I could get half. He keeps asking for me to give him access to my bank account so he could do mobile deposit for my paycheck. He said that was the fastest way he could get me paid. At this point, I was running very low on money, and I was thinking if he did get mad and reverse that charges, I would at least have some cash to pay them off myself and get back some of the money I had already sent him. I asked him again are you sure this is your business account and he got mad cause I kept asking. I asked him will my account look crazy having those large amounts going through he said he worked for a bank and not to worry and he paid all his employees good money. He had me try to do a mobile bank drop with the check but the check didnt scan. I asked was an issue with the check and he said that the system was probably down.  He said since he worked at the bank that sometimes happens.  I dropped the check for XXXX  in the night drop because he said to do it that way. The check for XXXX never showed up in my account. And he told me to contact the bank to see where the check was. The bank said they didnt find it. He said the bank probably stole that check. And he worked at the bank so sometimes people will steal that work at the bank. He said if he had access to my bank account, he could drop he check for me on his end. Anytime I asked him about why his business didnt do direct deposit for his employees he said mobile banking would get me paid faster and that was the way he paid for his business. I gave him my login information to my bank because he said his other employees allowed him to do that and to trust him. He said after he logged in, I can just changed my password and user name. He also said that he wouldnt be able to make any withdrawals because I would get a code to my phone. He kept saying this was only was to take money or anything from my account so I was safe.  He couldnt scan the check for mobile deposit, so he had me print and go in and deposit a new check for XXXX  by going into the bank. While at the bank I asked if that check gets verified then it will clear. The bank said that was true. They told me the check would clear by the next day. It took like XXXX  days to clear. When I asked the teller why the mobile deposit didnt work he said sometimes it doesnt work but the check looked fine, While that was happening, the bank called and said they found the check and should they deposit it.  I said I would call my employer and find out. When I called XXXX  he said to deposit it and he can deduct from my future pay. I asked him if the check was good cause I dont want to mess up my account. He said he had money in his business account and not to worry. And he got slightly angry with me. It got to the point that I told him not to call my phone because he started to threaten me and cussed me out. And tell me how I was stupid bitch. Several times he said I trying to ruin his family business.  He remained in contact with me during the days leading up to the check clearing, After XXXX  days the check cleared at like XXXX XXXX in the morning. He started calling me at like XXXX XXXX that morning saying I needed to pay him and someone else that worked at the bank to help him get my employee account set and helped get the check cleared. He claimed the person worked at Truist bank. He wanted me to pay him XXXX of the check. Early that morning at like XXXX XXXX  he called me and had me XXXX  XXXX to who said was the person who helped him named XXXX  XXXX and he said this was his cousin. After that he tried to XXXX  XXXX from my saving account. The next day when I tried to login into my bank my account was blocked. He told me to call my bank and remove the block. The bank blocked my account because done to the XXXX  from my savings account. So the XXXX was refunded to my account. They asked me about the other XXXX  I had sent to XXXX XXXX. At the time I thought the payment was good so I said the XXXX  was good.  I noticed that my account was in the negative when I asked him about that he would say it will clear. He said that the checks was good and that my account will clear. When I saw that my account was negative, I called him like XXXX times. When he called me back he said I had got him fired from his job at the bank and that I was going to pay for that. He said he had been at that job for like XXXX years and I had got him fired because I kept calling him all day. He said it was no need to reach out to the bank because the check would clear in a few days. He said the lady at the bank put a block on the checks and she should have cause the checks was good.  During this time he tried to get me to put another check into my account from another bank, that he said belonged to his sisters hair salon. He said the new check would offset the negative amounts in my account. Anytime I tried to talk to him about my account being in negative he would say I need to put another check into my account. I told him that I wasnt putting anything else into my account.  He kept trying to get me XXXX  him the other XXXX by asking me for my login. I told him that my account was in the negative and I wasnt giving him any more money till my account was cleared.   By this time, I had changed my bank password, so he no longer had access to my account. The last time I called him to find out what was going on with the 2 checks he had deposited he said he was on the phone with his accountant due to them thinking fraud was committed on his account. I asked him were the checks going clear and he said yes. During this time he keep asking me for pictures of my account to see if the checks were cleared. He even asked me to give him my login information again. During this time, he also texted me and asked for my login information. I declined both times. He even had someone reach out to me to and try to get access to my bank account. At first the text me saying my XXXX  account has a fraud attempt. The text seemed real. Then the number called me saying they was from XXXX  bank, The person on the phone even sounded foreign, They said someone in XXXX  tried to take money from my account. They listed the supposed to be fraud charges to my account. And they needed to get my old bank login to stop the fraud on my account. They then sent me a text message asking for my username. I advised the caller this was a scam and hung up my phone. I texted the number the man had texted the fraud alert from and said to tell XXXX  that the scam is up and to stop texting me anymore. 
 I have been able to find that XXXX is tied to a business by the name of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  owned by XXXX XXXX XXXX. Business address XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX   This business address was also used by XXXX XXXX as a business address for a business named: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I learned about XXXX XXXX XXXX because he tried to get me to send a XXXX  to it but it didnt work.  But it seems the name has changed to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. He did share with me that he owned a dog business too. 


 	
After a few days of my account not clearing up, I went down to my bank to discuss the checks to see about my account. That when I found out the checks didnt clear my account. And I owned my bank. I also loss a XXXX  week paycheck.   I asked him about the credit card payments he paid for me he said the payments were still good. After like a week or XXXX  I called all XXXX  of my credit card companies to find out all the payments had been reversed. One of my cards was closed and I now over XXXX and my card company wants XXXX  a month on the payment. And Im still paying my bank back and the recently closed my account. Bank nor the credit card company wants to work with me so Im stuck paying all of this back. It would be different if I didnt care about my credit or paying the bank back.  I am behind on all my bills, and I have been so depressed with the holidays coming and having my kids. I wish I had never met XXXX  he tried to ruin my life.  I plan to pay back everything but its a added burden to my already hard life. My mental health is ruin also. Im having a hard time sleeping at night and I got social anxiety. I cant even trust people anymore.
 This happening to someone can really make them feel like giving up. My kids the only thing keeping me going. I dont even have anything to give my kids for the holidays due to this situation.  He needs to be stopped so this doesnt happen to another struggling woman because he seems to prey on women. He is heartless and wanted to see me and my kids completely broke. I think his hope was since he had me spend money on my cards I wont report him to the FBI and local Police. And the fact he tries to intimidate woman is another reason he thinks he can keep doing this and get away with it. I did reach out the number I have listed for XXXX XXXX  at XXXX. This was a couple of days ago. I called call- blocked and when no one answered. I said something on the voicemail. That number started to texting me saying You forgot you was spending money too, I have screenshot too and So u was on the camera shopping and all. I was shopping but with my own card that he lied to me that he paid. There maybe some more things but I tried to shorten as best 
Backstory 
I met this person who told me their name was XXXX XXXX  last name started with a S. I think it was supposed to be XXXX. I found out on XXXX that his real name is XXXX XXXX XXXX because he had me send a XXXX XXXX XXXX  to that person. I went online yesterday morning and was able to find out his real name. He is a known scammer from what I found out on my search of his name online. I even found news articles on him doing check fraud in the past. I know this was him because we XXXX  before, and this was the same person from the dating app. He scammed me for a total amount of XXXX. 
Me and XXXX  met on XXXX XXXX XXXX. On the app he claimed he was from XXXX XXXX. We exchanged numbers on the app. When we first talked, he said he wanted to help me and my kids out financially. He also stated he wanted to date me, and he wanted his mate to not be struggling financially. He spoke about the holidays coming up and all the things I could buy my sons.  At first, I was resistant to him offering his help. He then said things like well you want to continue to struggle.  He said he had all this money from business loans and from his business being successful. He also said I could work for his smoke shop that he claimed to own in California. He also spoke about owning an insurance company with                his family. He also said he worked for XXXX XXXX XXXX. So, he wanted to help me as a single mother and as his future mate. He asked me what was something I wanted to achieve if I had more money to do it. I said I wanted to get a truck for my food trailer. He was like I can help you do that. He said he was able to help me with my credit cards because he could write some of it off as charity for helping someone in need. He also said he wanted to offer me employment for his XXXX XXXX. He said I could do some admin work for his company and help him pay some people he own for different reasons. He said he needed access to my bank login information so he could deposit my first work check which would be a XXXX  Bonus and sign on bonus. I said I didnt want to share my bank login information. He advises me that he didnt need my money and he just wanted to help me and my kids. He said advise me to order check paper so I could print out my work check myself, so he wont have to get into my bank account. He even offered to pay off my house, but I refused. He asked me what my biggest bill was. I told him my credit card bills were my highest bill. That way he can save on his taxes and help me. He made it seem like he really wanted to help me.  The first help he offered was for me to pay my credit card with his business account in the amount of XXXX  on XXXX. He provided me with what he said was his business account number and routing number. I asked him several times if this was his account because I dont want to get in trouble. He assured me this was his account. He even asked for my name and address to report on his business taxes. He said you cant get in trouble for me paying your bills.  He assured me the payment would be good. I called and made the payment on my credit card. Once the payment was made it was supposed to be non-reversable. He told me to check the balance on my card and it should be XXXX  available. After the payment was made, he advised me that I would have to pay him half of the amount he paid for the credit card bill. He said go out and buy yourself something nice and Ill pay that off for you too. I spent my part of the card on something too, thinking he was just going to pay it off like he said. He said the next time he would pay off my card and I wouldnt have to pay him. He had me find out my daily max and what was available on my cards.  He had me set a pin on my credit card also. He had me open a XXXX account to send XXXX  to XXXX XXXX on XXXX. He told XXXX XXXX was his sister and that he got her a salon. He told me to go to my bank and do a cash advance on my credit card for XXXX  He then had me send a XXXX  payment in the amount of XXXX on XXXX to his supposed to be cousin named XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. While I was at Walmart he had me take out XXXX  from my credit card and XXXX to XXXX him that to XXXX XXXX XXXX. A few days later, he had me check my cards and pay off XXXX  more of my other cards. He even paid off a card I had that was closed so that kind help put my mind at ease that he was really in my life to help me and my kids. After the payment was made, he had me send him XXXX and some more money on XXXX  to pay him for XXXX other credit cards. I also purchased a gift card for XXXX on XXXX. The gift card was supposed to be payment for him paying off my credit cards. After he paid the cards off that was when things started to change between us. At that point I started to question why he never asked, he never mentioned me having to pay him to pay off my credit cards. His response was this was only for the first time, and I would soon have some money once I started working for his company. He kept requesting money from me. Till I was so broke I didnt even have money to buy me or my kids food. After my cards were paid off and I started to feel like maybe I was being taken advantage of because he kept asking me for money and the way he was talking to me. I started to feel afraid and bullied by him. I texted this to him too.  When I talked to him, he cussed me out and said he doesnt want to deal with me if I think he is a scam when he is really trying to help me. He said he would reverse all the payments he made on my cards and say I stole from him. He even sent me a picture of a law officer he said was his cousin. He said he would report me to her. He also said if he ever saw me, he would get violent with me. He also said you were in debt when I meet you. I advised him that I was but I was paying my bills and that I would be in worse debt cause he had me do those cash advances and pay him from my credit card.  I was afraid he would ruin my credit because he had me run up XXXX   of my cards and I paid him already so I would lose that also. I would be in financial ruin. He threatened me a few times by saying you got your bills paid and you spend money on camara.  I asked him not to do that. He said he wont do it. He said I could get some money if I deposit a check for XXXX  and some change and I could get half. He keeps asking for me to give him access to my bank account so he could do mobile deposit for my paycheck. He said that was the fastest way he could get me paid. At this point, I was running very low on money, and I was thinking if he did get mad and reverse that charges, I would at least have some cash to pay them off myself and get back some of the money I had already sent him. I asked him again are you sure this is your business account and he got mad cause I kept asking. I asked him will my account look crazy having those large amounts going through he said he worked for a bank and not to worry and he paid all his employees good money. He had me try to do a mobile bank drop with the check but the check didnt scan. I asked was an issue with the check and he said that the system was probably down.  He said since he worked at the bank that sometimes happens.  I dropped the check for XXXX  in the night drop because he said to do it that way. The check for XXXX never showed up in my account. And he told me to contact the bank to see where the check was. The bank said they didnt find it. He said the bank probably stole that check. And he worked at the bank so sometimes people will steal that work at the bank. He said if he had access to my bank account, he could drop he check for me on his end. Anytime I asked him about why his business didnt do direct deposit for his employees he said mobile banking would get me paid faster and that was the way he paid for his business. I gave him my login information to my bank because he said his other employees allowed him to do that and to trust him. He said after he logged in, I can just changed my password and user name. He also said that he wouldnt be able to make any withdrawals because I would get a code to my phone. He kept saying this was only was to take money or anything from my account so I was safe.  He couldnt scan the check for mobile deposit, so he had me print and go in and deposit a new check for XXXX  by going into the bank. While at the bank I asked if that check gets verified then it will clear. The bank said that was true. They told me the check would clear by the next day. It took like XXXX  days to clear. When I asked the teller why the mobile deposit didnt work he said sometimes it doesnt work but the check looked fine, While that was happening, the bank called and said they found the check and should they deposit it.  I said I would call my employer and find out. When I called XXXX he said to deposit it and he can deduct from my future pay. I asked him if the check was good cause I dont want to mess up my account. He said he had money in his business account and not to worry. And he got slightly angry with me. It got to the point that I told him not to call my phone because he started to threaten me and cussed me out. And tell me how I was stupid bitch. Several times he said I trying to ruin his family business.  He remained in contact with me during the days leading up to the check clearing, After XXXX days the check cleared at like XXXX XXXX in the morning. He started calling me at like XXXX XXXX that morning saying I needed to pay him and someone else that worked at the bank to help him get my employee account set and helped get the check cleared. He claimed the person worked at XXXX XXXX. He wanted me to pay him XXXX of the check. Early that morning at like XXXX XXXX he called me and had me XXXX XXXX to who said was the person who helped him named XXXX XXXX and he said this was his cousin. After that he tried to XXXX XXXX from my saving account. The next day when I tried to login into my bank my account was blocked. He told me to call my bank and remove the block. The bank blocked my account because done to the XXXXe from my savings account. So the XXXX was refunded to my account. They asked me about the other XXXX I had sent to XXXX XXXX. At the time I thought the payment was good so I said the XXXX  was good.  I noticed that my account was in the negative when I asked him about that he would say it will clear. He said that the checks was good and that my account will clear. When I saw that my account was negative, I called him like XXXX times. When he called me back he said I had got him fired from his job at the bank and that I was going to pay for that. He said he had been at that job for like XXXX  years and I had got him fired because I kept calling him all day. He said it was no need to reach out to the bank because the check would clear in a few days. He said the lady at the bank put a block on the checks and she should have cause the checks was good.  During this time he tried to get me to put another check into my account from another bank, that he said belonged to his sisters hair salon. He said the new check would offset the negative amounts in my account. Anytime I tried to talk to him about my account being in negative he would say I need to put another check into my account. I told him that I wasnt putting anything else into my account.  He kept trying to get me XXXX him the other XXXX  by asking me for my login. I told him that my account was in the negative and I wasnt giving him any more money till my account was cleared.   By this time, I had changed my bank password, so he no longer had access to my account. The last time I called him to find out what was going on with the XXXX  checks he had deposited he said he was on the phone with his accountant due to them thinking fraud was committed on his account. I asked him were the checks going clear and he said yes. During this time he keep asking me for pictures of my account to see if the checks were cleared. He even asked me to give him my login information again. During this time, he also texted me and asked for my login information. I declined both times. He even had someone reach out to me to and try to get access to my bank account. At first the text me saying my XXXX  account has a fraud attempt. The text seemed real. Then the number called me saying they was from XXXX XXXX The person on the phone even sounded foreign, They said someone in XXXX  tried to take

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