My Citibank Fraud Experience (Debit Card)

I have been a victim of fraud before, but this was a little different this time.  I woke up one morning and went to work as usual.  I hadn't checked my checking account at this point because I wasn't expecting any transactions.  If I were, I would have checked first thing that morning.  So later in the morning, knowing I was about to go out to the store I checked my account to make sure I have enough.  It's a habit, no surprises needed at the checkout counter.  Much to my surprise, I had a $0.00 balance.  Not $0.31 or $2.42 which could have been accurate.  No, this was $0.00 and the charges were made that morning around 6am.  I didn't have a lot of money in the account to begin with, but I knew I had something. 

Without being too detailed, I had 4 transactions that totaled about $250.  Two of the transactions were the same amount, let's say $70 and the other 2 were $90 and $20.  All of the transactions were made at 3 different locations in the same city...about 8 hours away from me and around the same time, minutes apart.  The transaction description on my account stated that a debit card was used for each transaction.  So I checked my purse and surely I had the card in my possession!  So how could this happen?  Darn scammers!

I called the bank's fraud department as soon as I could and told them the situation.  They asked some questions and credited back the amounts and said that the fraud would be researched and I should receive the outcome in 30 days.  They also cancelled my card and overnighted me a new one. 

Ok, all done I thought.

About 30 days later, I surely received a message in online banking stated that they have researched the case and came to the conclusion that those were my charges and I am responsible for them since my card was in my possession at the time of the fraud and the pin along with the physical card had to be used to conduct the transactions so surely I made the transactions.  To add insult to injury, the letter also said that the transactions were within my normal activity.

I was floored.  There is no way I go into 3 separate convenient stores and buy $250 worth of anything, gas or otherwise.  So I decided to reach out to Citibank.  I reached out on Twitter, FB and through email.  I looked up the executives' email addresses online and I think that is what really got my case looked into again.

The media person told me that I couldn't have my case looked into, until after the money would be taken out of my account again, which was a week later.  I felt so powerless.  I kept my email to the executives updated each time an action was taken. 

After the money was taken out again, I called Citibank to appeal my case.  They credited my account again and said that they would research the account again.  A couple of days later I received an online message telling me that they overturned their decision and the funds will be credited to me permanently.

It was an uphill battle, but I believe if I had not sent an email to the executives, then my case would not have been looked into and overturned.  I also believe that the case wasn't researched to see that I live 8 hours away from where the transactions were conducted and the time line didn't add up and the transactions were way out of my normal activity.

I'm happy it turned out well, but I did have to put some work into it.  While speaking with one of the representatives, she mentioned that it was probably a scamming device used at a gas station and they just cloned my card information and pin.  Probably was.  Since then I also activated an alert that my bank has that states anytime a card is not present for the transaction I get an alert.  It's working well so far, but I hope this never happens again!