Consumer complaint received 2022-04-27
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
American Express ( Amex ) has confiscated {$6500.00} of my " cash rewards '' after closing an account in connection with a ransomware attack in which the hacker triggered over {$4400.00} in fraudulent payments to Amex via unauthorized ACH withdrawals out of my XXXX checking account. I have requested that Amex reopen my account and restore my cash reward balance and Amex has refused. Only after I closed the account, and with the help of XXXX XXXX, was the {$4400.00} restored to my checking account. But Amex still has {$6500.00} that is rightfully mine. 

In early XX/XX/2022, I was subject to a ransomware attack in which a hacker gained control of most of my online accounts via a XXXX XXXX breach and demanded bitcoin payments to release the accounts. After several days of extremely distressing and entirely unsuccessful attempts to reach American Express fraud services, I closed my Amex account. 

While trying to reach Amex, the hold times were as long as 90 minutes. Sometimes the recording offered me the option to be called back. In one case, I received the call back, put on hold for 20 minutes, and then when an agent finally answered the phone, the call was promptly disconnected. One agent apologized and blamed the hold times on the XXXX in XXXX. In total, I waited on hold with Amex for at least 8 hours over the course of several days, during which period the hacker was continuing to drain my checking account. Simultaneously, the hacker attempted to open a XXXX account funded by my American Express card. 

As soon as the attack began, I phoned Amex and they cancelled my card and issued a new card. But before I even activated the new card number, the hacker used my Amex account to draw additional funds from my checking account. When I reported that to Amex, they suggested ordering a XXXX card. Clearly, this was the only step this agent had the ability to do, and at that point I asked to speak to the fraud department, and they refused to connect me, one of several times that Amex refused to let me speak to anyone at their fraud department. Efforts to find a phone number and call them directly were unsuccessful. 

Given the failure of Amex to address this crisis, I felt that I had no other option than to close the Amex account. American Expresss effort to address the threat had failed. Somehow the hacker obtained the new card account number and still had the availability use it to move funds out of my checking account. 

It was extremely difficult to close the account and again involved hours on hold. During a very long hold period and several transfers to other numbers where I waited on hold, I was finally transferred to an agent who could close my account. By that point, I was standing on a noisy sidewalk in traffic on the way to an appointment related to one of my other hacked accounts. The Amex agent first tried to talk me out of closing the account and sell me a different card. I repeated that I simply wanted to close the account and requested that he proceed to do that and skip the sales pitches, but he insisted that I had to listen to the sales pitches. The agent was very rude. I was extremely distressed and had difficulty hearing him on the busy street. I was running out of cell-phone power and was in search of a place where I could plug in my phone. During the call I feared I would lose the connection and be forced to begin the extremely painful process of closing the account anew. My focus was on stopping American Express from continuing to make unauthorized draws out of my checking account. 

I have recently been informed that when the account was closed my cash back rewards of {$6500.00} were forfeited as standard practice when an account is closed. I do not believe the agent informed me of this, but it was difficult to hear under the circumstances and in the context of the agent 's aggressive and persistent attempts to sell me another Amex card. 

Regardless of whether the agent informed me that Amex would seize {$6500.00} in cash rewards, under the circumstances I believe Amex should reopen this account, restore the cash-rewards, and address the serious shortcomings in their response to hacker attacks on their customers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief