Dear Citibank India,
I had been your faithful customer for more than 10 years now. I have always bragged about hasslefree experience with Citibank while my peers with their ICICI, HDFC & multiple other bank accounts had to queue up at the bank branch for small small things.
My confidence got shattered 12 hours back. At around 9 PM on Aug 4, 2017 - I received an SMS from Citibank saying Rs 80k worth of transaction happened at Hyderabad ATM (I am based in Bangalore, India).
It took me some time (like 10 min) to realize its a fraud transaction. I felt devastated, started crying & pulled myself together (another 15 min gone) & called up your customer care.
The customer care guys kept on insisting on filing an FIR complaint. What shocked me is that your customer care needs 2-3 business working days to send acknowledgment on email for fraud ATM transaction reporting.
While I gave up, I gave my phone to my husband who eventually insisted to speak to the manager. The call got transferred to a so called - floor manager . I am not sure if he is actually a manager or some employee impersonating as manager. We recorded the call after taking his permission & this is what he has to say.
Please listen to the audio clip from 4:18 where the manager says that it will take 2-3 working days for the acknowledgement to reach on email. He also adds that Citibank does not have provision to send email for reporting fraud transaction on your hotline. This does not make sense. This need rectification. Hence this blog post.
To add to it, your representative kept on insisting to file an FIR. I think you are aware of how ‘hassled’ is to do things like filing FIR in India. I took the hassle of going to the nearest police station who refused to file an FIR as this is cyber crime matter. The same is reported by Twitter account of Bangalore City Police when my husband tweeted them for information.
Also attached is screenshot of the Citibank policy on fraudulent ATM transaction. Nowhere it says that we are suppose to file an FIR to get an acknowledgement from Citibank for reporting a fraud transaction.
Anyway, we were able to convince the authorities at Konankunte Bangalore Police Station to give us an acknowledgement which is proof enough that on Aug 4, 2017 between 9 PM (incident event) to 12 PM (end of day), I was in Bangalore. So hopefully this assertion is good enough to say that I did not do the ATM transaction in Hyderabad which is 500 kms away from Bangalore & hurried back to Bangalore to report the ATM fraud.
Why am I insisting on written acknowledgement
As per RBI mandate in Aug 2016, a fraud transaction reported to bank within 3 days of bank intimating the customer, the customer hold zero liability for the same. RBI link
I have been trying to repeatedly doing my part. Just that, I am not getting any acknowlegement. So if later, you end up refusing my claim, there is no way to prove that I did it on time.
Hence I am forced to write this public blog post. I am also sending a copy of this post to RBI so that they also stay aware & it be easy to prove my case. Afterall, Rs 80k is a big deal for me.
The irony
There is no way I could send a written request to you anymore as my account is frozen & alarmingly there is no way customer care of Citibank could be reached through emails . There is no mail id mentioned. There seems to be an option post login into my account but that option is no more possible as my account is frozen post reporting to your customer care on call.
Below is the screenshot of my account being locked. That means, you surely are taking my request seriously & blocked the account. Why no formal acknowledgement for the same ?
Sincerely,
Lakshmi G
Acount number (last 4 digits): 1807
Transaction details below for your reference
