Consumer complaint received 2019-03-19
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I received a text message from the XXXX   Fraud Department. XXXX is a prepaid card from American Express. The message asked if I had made a charge for {$670.00} at a XXXX. Press1 for yes, 2 for no. I, of course, I pressed 2 then I tried to log into my account and I was not able to log in. I kept getting a notification of invalid entry. I immediately called XXXX and they told me that I wouldn't be able to dispute this until the transaction went thru being it was still pending. When I told the representative that I was also not able to log in, she had told me that she saw that my user name was XXXX. My username was XXXX, not XXXX. I can change my pin, my address, my password, phone number, even add emails but I can not change my USERNAME. So, obviously, someone who has access to the Back Office computers, like someone who works there or possibly their computer system has been broken into as a whole. Whatever the case may be there should be dought that my account has been compromised. Then to my amazement, I thought to myself, " I wonder if they just changed the user name, and not the password ''. And, sure enough, I put XXXX as the username and used my original password and I got into my account. I could not believe it but, my the {$670.00} was back in my account. So, of course, I was relieved, thinking that it must have been a mistake on their part. Then about 2 hours later I looked into my account again and the money was gone again. This time it was {$670.00} missing and it was from a XXXX XXXX  at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, Texas transaction ID was XXXX, and ate that time I also realized that there was also a charge made on XX/XX/XXXX for {$31.00} from a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, TX Transaction ID XXXX. When these transactions were complete I called back and spoke to someone in the Fraud Department and the person supposedly secured my account by changing making me change my user name. XXXX doesn't let people use an email as a user name anymore, but whoever had done this fraudulent act also changed my pin and changed my primary email to that XXXX. I've never even heard of that email. And the Representative made me change the security question. Anyway, even after the account was supposedly secured, a few days later I saw that again, there was a XXXX cents hold at a XXXX, which means that once again, someone was trying to use my card. Also, the Representative told me that people are somehow getting peoples information at actually printing out FAKE CARDS!!! Just like they make Fake ID 's I guess! Also, what had happened is that the employer at XXXX realized it was a fake card so that's why the transaction was reversed. The person with the fake card then went to another store, in this case, a XXXX  and apparently the cashier at XXXX  wasn't as smart as the one in  XXXX was! OK, the worse is over, so I THOUGHT! I was told my disputes were going to be investigated and I would get an answer within 7-10 business days. well, I waited for 12 business days. I called again. I was then told I would be receiving something in the mail which would be sent out in a few days for me to fill out and which had to be returned within10 business days or I would be ineligible for the money to be replaced into my account. I waited and there was nothing. I even checked my emails, just in case I misunderstood the mail thing and still nothing. Finally, I called again today, XX/XX/XXXX. I was told that a Dispute Claim was never put in. So, today they changed my card and are sending out a new one, being my other one has been compromised. I also received an email saying that they received my dispute claim. Now, let 's see how much longer this will take. When this happened I researched a bit and came across an article XXXX XXXX XXXX. so, I now see that others have gone through this same type of situation with American Express. The person in this article used the word XXXX, referring to something that has been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome. I had no idea that something like this was going in such a reputable company like American Express! I really hope they don't give me any more of the runaround. It's not fair that my money has been stolen and all this time that I'm thinking my Claim will be hopefully be resolved soon and come to find out today that they never even put my claim into the computer! Just my username being changed should prove that it wasn't me. And worse of all when this happened I was in XXXX XXXX in the XXXX, NY. I had my neck broken and my spine was fractured because someone assaulted me in XX/XX/XXXX and since then I've been in and out of the hospital a few times from things related to those injuries so there no way I was traveling about. I also got a letter from my Doctor which proves there was no way that I could be in Texas shopping at XXXX or XXXX or XXXX. I hope that you can help me. Even if they give me my money back it still needs to be known that there's been some type of BREACH of Security at XXXX American Express!!! Probably someone working there is selling peoples information.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief