Consumer complaint received 2023-10-30
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NV
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
My former employer fraudulently created accounts in my name while informing me that I was being added to an existing account as an employee user with no financial responsibility. While I was unaware of how I was listed on the account, my employer utilized the login ( that I did not know was mine the whole time ) to manage the accounts to run his businesses while providing false information when I questioned him about the accounts. He has done this with multiple people. He has also created accounts in my name without my knowledge with multiple companies including XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. Upon discovering my personal XXXX and XXXX accounts were created without my knowledge or approval, I placed fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus. I found inquiries on my credit report listing the companies with applications I was unaware of. Once I discovered the American Express accounts were created in my name through talking to American Express on the phone, I was told the accounts could be transferred to my employer if he was approved for the line of credit. I confronted my employer about the matter, gained access to my login by talking to the American Express representative, and tried to schedule a time to transfer the account ownership. My employer consistently gave me the runaround to avoid the transfer. Now that there is still no progress on transferring the account over and American Express denied my fraud application and my dispute since I used the card while employed, I believe a fair resolution would be to close the accounts and take me off as the personal guarantor and owner of the accounts. The card was used as an employee for my employers business use, not for my personal use, and I was falsely informed that I was added to an existing account as an employee rather than the account owner. I should not be allowed to have a business account when I do not own a business. I did not and do not own any of my former employers businesses. My former employer fraudulently created this account. Although I have tried multiple times to resolve the matter on my own, I refuse to and can not afford to pay for an account that is not truly mine and that I did not create. It is bad enough that these circumstances have forced me to resign from my employment. Still, I have gone through extremely high levels of stress during my XXXX because of American Express unwillingness to resolve an account that I should not have been allowed to own in the first place. I have stressed and spent weeks calling multiple companies to discover more accounts opened in my name without my knowledge. None of those companies have tried to force the responsibility on me like American Express has. I have already filed identity theft with the FTC, and I am forced to and will keep taking further action to ensure I am not responsible for accounts I did not create. My former employer, the business owner of the company, is listed as the employee user on the accounts and provided the bank information to pay the accounts in full. Please close all American Express accounts in my name and remove me as the owner and guarantor.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation