A fraud has been committed on a Citibank- Shoppers Stops credit card issued but not recd by me. Not only has someone misused the card, what is really alarming, are the phone calls from Citibank officers accusing and threatening.
The chain of events relating to the above-mentioned card are as follows :
1. recd a citialert on 7th march, 08 that a Citibank card ref no. 08030820828 had been issued to me
2. another citialert recd on 15th march, 08 that the Citibank card ************ 4009 had been dispatched via Blue Dart vide AWB # 42717362435
3. the card was sent to my residence at Worli, but returned undelivered in the first instance since I was not available
4. later the card was once again sent to the residence on 20th/ 21st march, 08 and even though I was not available, the courier boy took my mothers acknowledgement on the same and without physically handing over the card to her, left. Pls note, my mum has had an accident and was operated upon on 8th march, 08. As a result, she is on walkers and was unable to hold back the courier boy.
5. I was out of town from Thursday 20th march, 08 and returned on Monday 24th march 08 and on being informed of the same, both me and my husband visited the Blue Dart office at Worli. Spoke to one Mr. Sandeep (my father had also called this person earlier on). We were informed that there is nothing to worry, and that the acknowledgement had been cancelled and the card sent back to Chennai vide tracking no. 42717362435. When we requested them to give this to us in writing, they refused, and only scribbled the abovementioned tracking no as well as the tracking no. (11982083315) vide which the card was recd by Blue Dart from Chennai.
6. on Tuesday 25th march, 08, I called the Chennai office, was told to call Mumbai customer service, called and spoke to a lady called Pushpa. She assured that all was fine and that the card would be reissued and re-sent to me by 28th march, 08
7. thought this ended the matter when to my shock and utter disbelief, a get another sms from Citibank on 28th march, 08 informing me that I had “ a high value Electronics charge” on my credit card and that I need to call the local Citiphone number incase I did not confirm the purchase on the card ending- 4009.
8. I immediately once again called the Mumbai customer service center and spoke to a gentleman by the name “ Nabil”. He recorded all the above facts and gave me a reference number 2408032762. I told him that I didnt even have the card number, let alone the card and was not aware of any transaction made thereon. I also requested him to give me the details of the transactions on the card, what value, which city, etc. which he declined saying he would have to investigate. I also requested him to pls block the card and that I did not want this card. He stated that he would have to re-issue the card before cancelling the same. He also stated that he would send me the CDF (customer declaration form) which I needed to fill up and return. On asking if I needed to do anything at this point in time, he replied in the negative and said he would investigate and revert.
9. on 1st April, 08, I got a call from someone named Roshan (phone no. 66196340) once again asking me and checking for facts. He said he alongwith people from Blue Dart would come over and request my mother to identify the courier boy.
10. on Saturday 5th april, 08, the said Mr Roshan from Citibank and some employees of Blue Dart visited my residence and grilled my mother. My husband was present during this meeting. Though my mother acknowledged that she had signed the acknowledgment and also identified the courier boy, she reiterated that the credit card was not handed over to her. The Citibank representative shared the statement with my husband which included some amounts paid to a “Geeta Bar” and orally they even acknowledged and accepted that I wouldn’t have visited one. However, in order to absolve themselves of any responsibility, the Citi representative asked us to file an FIR. We explained that we couldn’t file an FIR simply because we didn’t even have the credit card number.
11. Yesterday morning i.e on 8th april, 08, I again got a call from one Mr Naik of Citibank asking me to fill up a CDF (customer declaration form). Told him that as I had read and understood the form, the same was not applicable since it relates to transactions in case the card has been lost or some transactions are in dispute. In the current case, since I haven’t even recd the card, don’t have the card number, I really cannot even fill in the form. He said he would check with his manager and revert.
12. then again at 7 pm, the said Mr Roshan (phone no. 022 66196340) called and asked me if I wanted the card reissued to which I declined. Mr Roshan then raised his voice accusing me and my family of accepting the credit card and using the same and denying the same.
The crux of the matter seems to be the fact that my mother has signed on the acknowledgement. But, request you to pls bear in mind that this was a genuine error on her part and she never expected the courier boy to vamoose without handing over the card to her. At this point, I would like to mention that when the card was returned at the first instance, I was categorically informed by Blue Dart officials that they would not hand over the card to anyone except the person in whose name the card was issued, that’s me. So, why then in the first place was the card even given to my mother??
The whole sequence of events is really a cause of concern to me.
Moreover, as it appears, Citi is now trying to absolve itself of the responsibility by using harassment / accusation tactics.
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