I have had a very bad experience with citibank in the way they dealt with the fraud transactions. I have had my credit card stolen and was abused for a total sum of 74, 000 Rs. Citibank fraud department were seemingly helping me in the investigation. I had gone to the police station to file a complaint submitted my complaint to citibank and wasted lot of my time spending with them in the investigation. They say they were so close to the investigation as to finding out the vehicle registration #of the fraudster but could not trace the address.
After some time, they brushed their shoulders off and asked me to pay the entire amount outstanding. I had asked them to send me the sales drafts and none of those sales drafts had the signature closer to mine. The abuser did not even try to forge my signature. They had signed with my first name in one case, last name in the other and scribbled something vague in the rest of the sales drafts. Citibank instead of penalizing merchants for accepting the transactions with incorrect signatures and making sure their authorization systems get better, they are penalizing their loyal customers. I have been a customer of citibank for more than 5 years. I had an NRI account, have a suvidha account with a salary direct deposit from my employer and this credit card.
While the case was pending and under investigation, they had also added my name in one of those defaulter databases which itself is completely unacceptable. I wanted to close this case and had sent several emails. Even though I was getting replies, there was no concrete step taken from their side. Ultimately they asked me to bear 70% of the total transaction amount. They say they will remove my name from the defaulters list only after receiving this payment. They do not know the basic difference between the defaulters and the fraud victims as they are dealing with me as a defaulter and not as a victim. I hope folks take a note of this and gain something out of my experience.