Consumer complaint received 2018-04-26
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NE
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX I noticed an email on my XXXX account from American Express Serve saying that 2 wire transfers were completed on my behalf as if I did so. After seeing this I immediately login to my American express account to see what was going on and I saw 2 different unauthorized wire transfer from out of my account. As I'm checking my account with Amex I proceeded to call American Express customer service ( XXXX ) The first unauthorized wire transfer is under the name XXXX XXXX in the amount of {$710.00} with an email address saying that I sent money to XXXX. it also had a transaction id number XXXX The second unauthorized wire transfer is under the name XXXX XXXX in the amount of {$750.00} with an email address saying that I sent money to XXXX. it also had a transaction id number XXXX. The representative told me that they would shut down my card and send me a replacement card. she advised me to change my password on my American express serve account. She also told me that the investigation of the matter could take 7-10 business days to resolve. I stressed over and over to the representative that I did not authorize these charges and someone else had access to my information online. I called back on Friday XX/XX/XXXX to check with customer service to see if my request to dispute the charges went through properly. and the representative I spoke then said that there was a case open and that the information about the disputes got forward on to the investigation department. I made a police report with XXXX police Department. ( report Number XXXX ) XXXX I made a report on the identity theft.gov website Recovery Plan XXXX I placed a fraud alert on my XXXX XXXX account ( I made a report against American Express Serve on the XXXX website I made a report with XXXX to investigate the 2 emails linked to the unauthorized wire transfers. Case # XXXX-Spoke with XXXX from XXXX Case # XXXX spoke with XXXX from XXXX . XXXX stated that if any information comes back on the emails it can be requested legally by authorize personnel. Contact number for XXXX Accounts is XXXX. I contacted my local FBI office in XXXX, XXXX XXXX Come Monday morning XX/XX/XXXX. I checked my XXXX account to see if there was any updates about my case. instead I get this alarming email from American Express investigation team stating that they've completed the investigation and to their conclusion they declined my disputes and stating that I authorized the wire transfers through. which is completely false. i did not do this. This specific email was sent on XX/XX/18. which doesn't make sense at all when I was told that the investigation would take 7-10 business days to completed. I believe that American Express investigation department rushed to judgment with my disputes in these charges and a proper investigation was not conducted on my account. How can a determination me made within a day of reporting my disputes? I called american express customer service XXXX American express also emailed me stating that they locked my account and suspended me from having access to it because they said that I was in violation of American Express Serve member agreement. Section 15D. I had no knowledge of this agreement so I researched the information on their website in the legal section and it briefly explains that they suspended my account due to the fraudulent activity on my account which was not done by me or authorized by me. During this time I'm on the phone with American Express Account Services explaining to them that i'm not in violation of anything because I did NOT authorize these 2 wire transfers the phone call was not going like I wanted it to. I was not getting treated fairly whatsoever during my frantic phone calls to American express Account services. their calls are recorded hopefully that can help assist the severity of my issue with them because their customer service was not helpful at all. The representative that i was speaking to kept putting me on hold for long periods of times. I got hung up on several times of calling back to back to figure what's going on with my account. I tried requesting for a supervisor several times or to speak to someone else about my account but they weren't any help either. After calling american express account services numerous times I finally spoke with someone who actually took my call seriously. Her name is XXXX and I explained to her that I wanted to appeal the decision of declining my disputes against my account. The first investigation that was conducted on my account was not handle correctly or professionally. I expressed to XXXX XXXX my actions of what I was doing on my end as far as proceeding with submitting criminal reports against what happened to my money and how I can recover it back. I also stated to her that it's their job to figure out how someone hacked into my account and was able to wipe my account clean. My money is supposed to be secured and insurance within a financial banking company and as of right now my trust with American Express is no longer worth anything. I feel completely violated as a person and I'm not sure what other information of mine is out there for someone to try use as me or against me. This incident left me broke with no money in my account that i was saving. i'm a single mother of XXXX with a fixed income and this really put me behind in everything. Now I have to figure out how to come up with money to take care of my household because of this. I also requested a copy of the investigation report on my account so I can relay that information over to the proper authorities for review as well. I contacted American Express account services today XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX ( his ID number is XXXX ) to get an updated on my case since they haven't reach out to me. and stated to me that my appeal was noted on XX/XX/XXXX i  just wanted to make sure that they were conducting another investigation. I stated the same frustrations with XXXX about how my account was not handled properly. I informed him that I was a first time user of this particular service with American express and I didn't like the way I was treated during this process. I will not do business with American Express at all as a result of my information being breach and I will advise anyone not to use their services ever because of whats happening to me. I seriously hope my case can get handled in the proper hands and my money of {$1400.00} can be recovered.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief