What about writing a letter and outlining the problem and indicate that after your many attempts to rectify THEIR error, if you do not receive a response and correction in 60 days, you will accept their lack of reply as authorization to keep the money AND any future monies received. Send registerd, oh and maybe use gray 6 point type for the letter.

This is the exact same tactic the credit card companies use. You get a notice of term changes in tiny print and if you don't object within 30 days, your lack of objection is considered acceptance.

Ok, so they can't spend the money, but what about cashing the checks and putting it in a high(ish) interest online account, like Ing. Just leave it there until they come calling, and then give it back. In the meantime, get 3.5% return on it.

Forget that. Just open up a completely separate savings account and deposit them there and collect the interest. You tried your best to point out their incompetence, and sometimes the only way people will learn to take their lumps.

I'm not an attorney, or an accountant, but could they deposit the money in the account, as it comes in and when Citi wants it back give it to them then. At least this way, they could get some interest, no?

Love the title, very rarely do headlines make me laugh.

Well done Meg.

@akacrash: 2.75% and dropping fast.

Some of my favorite lines:

"We're on to you, suckers, and we're taking our money back. Nice try, though." (I'm paraphrasing.)

It was like the Hannukah miracle, except on a credit card.

Here is my advice. Cash the Check. They will notice there mistake and immediately want that money back and stop all this nonsense. DO NOT spend the money, as they really will want it back. Put it in a savings account and make 2 bucks interest or something on it, just do not spend it.

@akacrash: What snowmoon said!

@SkokieGuy: In all honesty I don't know how the bank could fight something like that in court. You have the documented proof, the judge would simply turn to the bank and say "You had your chances...".

Always consult your attorney before taking anyone's advice.

@SkokieGuy: Genius!

See the plot of Donald Westlake's Money for Nothing (2003)

A great set-up for a serious caper, something of a more ingenious revival of the "nephew" plot. The hero has been for years receiving, and cashing, checks from (it seems) an untraceable government agency, with no idea why he's getting them. Then one day a man approaches him and tells him that his checks were a retainer: he's a "sleeper" spy and now he's being activated.

Ask them to convert the checks to some sort of merchandise so that is falls under the USPS Rules for Unsolicited Merchandise. It may fall under that category anyway. (Check with your local postmaster.)

Agreed on the above, put it into something that will give you interest. probably dont tell the bank this though, if their doing something this stupid, i wouldnt be suprised it they turned around and said"you used our money for something, since its our money, its our interest.

if your concerned about fraud, dont touch the checks

My guess is that someone is making electronic payments on their credit card, and either put in the wrong account number or Citibank is putting it in the wrong account. That person is probably, at this moment, typing up an e-mail to Consumerist along the lines of "no matter how hard I try, Citibank will not fix this problem..."

Of course don't spend the money, but I think you already know that. In the olden days you could go into a branch (if there were any in your state) and get a human to sit down and work out the problem. But today the job of Citibank branch personnel is to refer any fact-to-face inquiries to their customer service phone number.

[shrug]Dunno. Escalate. EECB. Write letters. Ultimately, you can always close the account.

Honest people have it tough in todays automated world. Someone probably set up automatic deposits, but somebody missed a digit or two. So nothing looks wrong from their end, it matches the records.

However, the check thing is probably a massive blunder. I betcha the person who requested the deposits noticed they weren't getting their cash, so they requested checks to be mailed to them instead. Then they checked mailing info from the deposit account.

All guesswork really, but I'll keep on believing it until somebody who actually has worked in a modern bank disproves it.

@snoop-blog: To be a Hannukah miracle they would have to get checks for eight days in a row.

That only happens to AIG.

And thanks for your previous compliment. I am not called genius nearly often enough! LOL

@SkokieGuy: I'm not sure that your advice would hold up in the court of law, but it would stand a damn good chance. It would just depend on the judge I would imagine.

The checks that arrived in the mail... I think (lawyers correct me) that those belong to you since they were sent usps. Could be wrong.

Cash the checks and donate them to a pediatric leukemia charity. That way, when they ask for it back, there can be a consumerist headline saying: "Citibank Hates Kids with Cancer!"

Am I the only one who is confused as to why they would send their call to the fraud department? It sounds like whoever they were talking too doesn't know too much so they just passed it on to another department to deal with. The "were on to you" letter doesn't make any scene either. I say spend the check if they are that incompetent it's there loss and they should have to eat that loss.

earning a little interest on that money, however minimal does seem to be a decent way of going about things until they fix the problem. or should I say if they fix the problem...

Here's your options:
1) Keep doing what you're doing until Citibank gets their act together. Pros: None. Cons: They may never get their act together and you'll have to put up with this forever.

2) Send an EECB. Pros: Maybe they'll fix the problem. Cons: Maybe they won't.

3) Close the credit card down. Pros: No more worries, problem solved. Cons: May hurt your credit rating/credit score by shortening your credit history. (Do you ever use the card? If not, it may be listed as inactive anyway, so it might not matter...)

4) Take the money, put it in a separate savings account, earn 2%. Pros: You benefit from their mistake without worrying about them coming for money you've already spent. Cons: This may not solve the underlying problem of them sending you money in error.

5) Spend the money. Pros: You get stuff. Cons: They WILL come for their money, and you'll be SOL with the "but I tried to give it back" excuse in court.

There's no perfect solution. Take your pick with what you got.

@pixiegirl1: You should NEVER spend money that comes to you this way. When they finally figure out their mistake, they will try to recover the money, and if it isn't returned immediately, lawyers will be involved. I've seen several stories like this where the bank gets nasty, and some of them have even resulted in jail time.

Take the money

Put it in an account that will gain interest

if & when they want their money back - give it back (but keep the interest)

@akacrash: I know a guy personally who was accidentally awarded $200k by the IRS. Ten years later, they came and got it back AND he was required to give them all of the interest it had earned as well. Since he spent the interest, he is currently still paying them back in installments.

@TheRedSeven: I'd be thinking options 2 and 3 myself...

I'm no expert on this kind of thing, but I've seen stories where the consumer gets screwed over through some argument of "bad faith" or whatever.

Best thing to do: EECB first of all. Not only would this (hopefully) get some attention but it could alert CitiBank managers to some flaw in their system that the drones aren't interested in as well as helping others (surely, there's somebody, somewhere missing some deposits?).

If that doesn't work, close the account. Maybe it will affect credit short term, but do you really want your credit with an organisation who not only makes this kind of mistake, but won't even address it when an honest member of the public notifies them? How effective do you think they'll be if you're the victim of some actual fraud?

I would say do not in any circumstances touch the money. If your asking them to take the money back ends up with the fraud department, what will happen if they think you're actually stealing it? Not worth the risk for an extra $10 of interest IMHO.

My advice is to do nothing. Cashing the check could be interpreted as check fraud. Put the checks into a file. You did twice your duty and informed them about their mistake. The last thing you want to do is anything that would or could be twisted against you.

@SkokieGuy: Awesome idea! Deposit the checks into an account you can use for good, too. Like draw the interest off to some charity.

@SkokieGuy: Right, except judges usually side with the companies. If these poor people so much as touch this money they'll be screwed. I mean, they SHOULD be able to spend it as they see fit, if Citibank is really this stupid. Nonetheless, I think a judge will ignore all their documentation.

@snoop-blog: Demand a trial by jury. I would side with the defendant in this case.

you can do the same interest trick w/ the credit card. Use the card as you normally would. Since the balance is taken care of with their credit, put the same amount as the balance in with the rest of the 'savings' and get more interest on it. If they want it back cash out and treat youself to a nice dinner out.

I 2nd or 3rd (Or 5th or 10th) the put it in a seperate account and get some interest off it. Thats exactly what they would do.

Maybe the bank is outsourcing its deposits. Isn't this how a bank works? Just, you know, with roles reversed...

Someone (in this case Citibank) gives money to an entity (readers M & C) for safekeeping. Since the credit card balance is like a checking account, just reinvest like the bank does :redistribute into a savings account and keep the interest when the bank comes to withdraw their money.

@WrightThersander: Definitely sparked my interest. I'll be checking that out today. :) Thanks.

@nicemarmot617: Exactly. Unfortunately, the country/world is run by Big Business, not Lil' Consumer. A judge will almost always find in favor of a big company in cases like this.

Interesting story... Ironic thing is... I am with Citibank, and every so often they take 100, 200, or as much as 1000 out in random intervals...

Just joking

I'm going to go with the assumption, as mentioned in earlier comments, that someone is writing the wrong account number on a deposit. At the LEAST, the deposits are probably tied to the checking account #.

Any way to get citibank to close the account and open a new one w/ diff numbers?

@SkokieGuy: Dammit, I like the way you think!!!

I should hope a judge would side with them.

But I definitely believe a letter escalated to someone higher up than the "fraud" department is in order.

@dorianh49: And, most likely, credit card issues are tied to mandatory binding arbitration. Ain't happening.

Instead of telling them they did something wrong, tell them YOU did something wrong. Tell them you seem to have an old automatic payment set up that you want to stop and you can't figure out where it was set up. See if they can cancel it all together or get whatever information you can about the payments, then track it down.

Next time you need to contact them give them my address. Seriously open a high yield saving account, you should be able to get 2-3% yield. When they ask for the money back you'll have it but it looks like it might take them a while to notice their mistake. Even though you keep telling them about it.

@DelannaVespa: That's the IRS. They're a little different.

@DeltaTee: I'd call in a free sample from Citibank. Like this money? Bank with us and we'll give you MORE. Cash that shit.

@SkokieGuy: Somebody should double-check with a lawyer to see if that could work...

I'm worrying about the poor sod trying to pay off his credit card and never having the money show up in his account.

@tc4b: haha, YES.

@pixiegirl1:

You aren't the only one confused why this would be a "fraud" issue. This sounds like a billing issue. Fraud would be if someone was spending money on her account, not making payments on it. But I do agree with someone else's comment that it looks like someone else is making regular payments on their own account and it's getting posted to this person's account. I agree EECB seems the way to go at this point. I wouldn't touch this money with a 10 foot pole. This is the kind of money that eventually comes back to bite.

@tc4b: LOL. You just made my day :)

You know, at least you are honest, but it makes me wonder howmany accounts out there are having the same thing happen to them.

There's the way you can bailout the nations banks, get them to stop depositing checks into people's accounts.