Consumer complaint received 2026-04-20 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, while my wife and I were asleep, at or around XXXX our home computer was compromised and several fraudulent early morning wires in the total amount of {$9500.00} were sent from our Citibank XXXX account, along with similar unauthorized transfers and amounts from our XXXXXXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX Management accounts. Both XXXX and XXXX investigated and restored the wired funds within approximately XXXX hours of my reporting the incidents. By contrast, Citibank denied our fraud claim more than a month later, on the grounds that the wires were initiated using our credentials and an established device ID which, of course, is precisely what you would expect to see in a successful account takeover event, not evidence of an authorized transaction. I reported the Citi wires within hours of discovering them at XXXX on the morning of XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with Citis Wire Fraud department at that time. Since then, I have worked through our personal banker at our local branch and his XXXX ( XXXX XXXX, Vice President / Branch XXXX ) and filed an appeal through her. I followed up with the Citi Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX back office to confirm that the appeal had been initiated and to answer any questions. After providing the background detailed below I was informed that the process would take XXXX business days. The person I spoke with told me that she would do her best to expedite the appeal. Unfortunately, despite multiple emails to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I received no response or status update whatsoever from the branch. At that point, on XX/XX/XXXX ( see timeline below ) I escalated the issue to the Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ). XX/XX/XXXX At XXXX XXXX : Home computer hacked. Fraudulent payee added to joint checking account and XXXX wires totaling XXXX XXXXXXXX wire sent to payee XXXX. Multiple calls to Citi, Citi Wire, Citi Credit Cards to report hack and fraudulent activity. Case ID : XXXX. Told that investigation could take up to 45 days. XXXX XXXX Went to XXXX bank to close compromised account, open new account and setup all new passwords security settings etc XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Having heard nothing, went branch bank and told by XXXX XXXX that letter had been sent via XXXX and was in the Document section of our checking account. He printed out letter dated XX/XX/XXXX denying our claim. Note : Hard copy letter never received and online letter was in frozen account that I no longer had access to and hence did not see. Personal banker filed appeal while I was at the branch. Emailed XXXX XXXX XXXX / Citi Branch Manager providing detailed history of incident and requesting escalation. ( Note : Did not get response back ) XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX Email to XXXX XXXX XXXX Citi Branch Manager. ( Note : Did not get response back ) XX/XX/XXXX : Called Citi XXXX XXXX unit ( XXXX ). Transferred to XXXX Wire Escalation XXXX on Incident Report Team. Confirmed that they had received appeal. Will get answer in no later than 15 days ( target XX/XX/XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX : Sent email detailing entire history and included attachments to XXXX XXXX XXXX. Got auto response back indicating receipt XX/XX/XXXX : Received auto generated email with Ref # XXXX. Anticipate response within XXXX calendar days ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX spoke to XXXX. Under investigation. Said she would get in touch with analyst ( XXXX XXXX XXXX to find out what is going on. XX/XX/XXXX : Called to find out status. XXXX could not connect with XXXX because she was busy. Said she would call me back XX/XX/XXXX : Missed call back at XXXX with voice mail saying office was closed at XXXX XXXX. Upon seeing the message I tried calling but got office closed message. Got for email with attachment saying Upon receipt of your inquiry, an investigation was opened on XX/XX/XXXX, to research the matter further. Our investigation may take up to 30 days, and you will be notified in writing with the final results. XX/XX/XXXX : Called to find out status. Spoke with XXXX. She tried but could not connect with XXXX XXXX because she was out of the office. Said she would call me back in one or two days. Outrageous! Today iXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX months from the day of the incident and Citi is still sitting on our money and now telling us that their investigation XXXX take XXXX MORE DAYS! And XXXX they have all the facts. There is nothing more to " investigate ''! My wife and I have been Citi customers for more than XXXX years, with personal checking and savings, a mortgage, business banking, and a Citi line of credit. We are alarmed that clearly unauthorized wires, reported within hours and accompanied by strong evidence of a computer compromise, were denied based on the mere fact that a fraudster used our stolen credentials and device identifiers. It is quite ironic that each and every time I call to get the status of this claim I am asked for a reference number, an account number, last XXXX digits of my ATM, last XXXX digits of my SSN. Yet a wire transfer was sent with nothing more that a passive email saying, let us know if this wasnt you. With the prevalence of hacking incidents occurring daily in todays financial environment, its shocking that Citibank has not done more to improve security for its clientele, not to mention the bank itself. I have been patient and cooperative, but Citis handling of this matter has become unreasonable and deeply disappointing. Since Citi has not resolved this promptly, I am proceeding with this formal complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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