Incredible US banking ineptness

[jaywalker2]

I received a credit card statement in one of my secondary email accounts from Citibank. Now, I don't have a Citibank credit card, I have never applied for a Citibank credit card. The name on the email account is not my real name, it's basically an account I use when signing up for things on the web to avoid spam in my primary account.

 

But this credit card account was using my email address and the name on the email account. So as a courtesy, instead of just blocking it, I called up Citibank to report a fradulent credit card account. First of all, it took me several phone calls just to talk to a representative. Then it was not the right representative, I had to  be transferred, they transferred to the wrong place, I had to be transferred again, I was cut off. I had to call back.

 

Finally, I reached somebody who ostensibly could help me and I duly reported that my email address and the name on the account had been used fradulently to take out a credit card. Were they grateful? No. They insisted they needed my social security number and name, which I wasn't about to give them, of course. Instead, I told them that it was very easy to check whether this was a valid account. I gave them the last four numbers of the credit card account, the name on the account, the date the person became a card member. And I told them all they had to do was check the social security number on the application against the name. They can't possibly match.

 

The representative, it sounded like a Filipino call center, kept giving me an argument, so I finally told them they could investigate or not as they pleased, but I wasn't going to be associated with a fradulent account and that I would block any further message.

 

It's just amazing to me the hoops somebody who lives overseas has to jump through in order to open a bank account, keep it open, or get a credit card or do anything else. I tried to open an account at Ally Bank, for instance, and they rejected me because I didn't have enough of a US credit history even though I gave a US adsdress. And yet ithese banks seem to be handing out credit cards with no credit checks at all.  And even when you report a fraud, they act like they don't care.

 

Well, that's my rant of the day.
 

[1FinickyOne]

Sounds like business as usual... 

 

But, not at my bank. I have had the same account for over 20 years and the management knows me and the account is locked down other than our regular transactions. 

[gamb00ler]

It seems likely that the website/company where you supplied that email address was hacked.  Hackers then sent you a phishing email to that account trying to get more data from you.

 

It's quite likely Citibank was just chosen at random by the hackers and the bank knows nothing about that email, credit card or that fictitious name you supplied.

Edited 4 hours ago by gamb00ler

[jaywalker2]

No, citibank confirmed it was a real account. They said they couldn't close it without proof it was fake.