Consumer complaint received 2025-03-21 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Card opened without my consent or knowledge
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
At some date unknown to me Citibank opened a new card in my name. ( According to them ) they sent a card physical card to an address I do not live at and have never lived at. They supposedly sent paper statements to this address. I did not know about the card. 

I had had a credit card with Citibank that I did not use, but when I called to close the account the customer support person convinced me not to do that because it would negatively impact my credit ( maybe around XXXX ). I left the account open for several years, but did not charge anything to the card. I did have a automatic payment set up on the card to avoid late fees, but I was not using the card. 

In XXXX of XXXX I had to find an old email and so I opened an old email account that I had set up in the XXXX and was surprised to see communication from Citibank about a past due balance. I logged on to this old account and saw that there was a new card associated with my login information. I never signed up for this card, never consented to them opening a new card in my name. I had never seen this card before and did not recognize the card number. The account had a past due balance. It card had one charge on it which I did recognize as a charge I made with my XXXX account mistaking it for my active credit card ( coincidentally the last XXXX digits used to identify this card are almost identical to an active chase card I use ). However, I never provided XXXX with this card number, because I never knew this card existed. I have no idea how this information was passed from Citibank to XXXX without my consent or involvement. I immediately called Citibank to ask what was going on. 

They referred me to a fraud line, which I was resistant to because I did not think this was a case of third-party fraud, I thought this was a case of citibank perpetuating fraud against me and I was skeptical that their internal audit would find citibank at fault. However they assured me this was the only way they could address what was going on with my account. I asked if I would continue to have late fees assessed on the account while it was being investigated ( they told me the so-called " investigation '' would take 6-8 weeks, which would mean at least one more late charge ). They said I would not be responsible for additional late charges. 

I explained the situation to the support person who asked a lot of questions about where I lived ( not at the address on file ). What my phone number was ( not the phone number on file ). He did not ask about my attempts to close the account. He did not offer to close the account for me. I repeatedly explained I had no knowledge of the card and had never consented to the account being opened. 

About a week later another investigator called and asked me very similar questions, and I responded in the same was as I had when I opened my initial complaint. Both times I declined to give them my current address for fear it would be used to open more cards in my name fraudulently. 

They just sent me the " findings '' of their investigation ( XX/XX/XXXX ). That I am 100 % responsible. With no evidence of their conclusions. 

They stated ( erroneously ) that " Cards were mailed to an address that belongs to you. '' Absolutely not. 
They stated ( erroneously ) that " Statements were mailed to an address that belongs to you. '' Absolutely not. 
They stated ( correctly ) that " You received benefit from a transaction or payments made on the account. '' I have never disputed this. 
They stated ( erroneously ) that " You were aware of the account and did not take action to close the account. '' Absolutely not. I never knew about this account until the day I contacted them and had no way of knowing. 

Curiously, this was sent to my actual current mailing address, which I never provided to them, demonstrating that all along they could have found my current contact information and had been sending me updates about this card to my actual address. They chose not to do so and instead use contact info that was verifiably not my correct address. Contact info that I had never provided to them. 

The lack of charges to this account or my " related '' account for YEARS surely can be verified and is consistent with my explanation of what has happened. There should also be a record of my attempt to close the " related '' account years ago. 

They insist I am responsible for all charges and fees. And threatened to report me to credit reporting agencies if I don't pay. This is really rich because it was their representative who convinced me to keep the card, despite the risk of identity theft because it was going to negatively impact my credit score if I closed it. So with Citibank keeping their card or closing their card is damaging to my credit score. Cool!

They are lying to avoid culpability for their deceptive and illegal practice of opening accounts on behalf of people who never asked for them, using decades old contact info so that they can avoid run up fraudulent charges before being detected by the people who have had these cards opened on their behalf. Dispiciable.

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 non-monetary relief