Consumer complaint received 2019-12-16
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
Beginning on XX/XX/XXXX a locksmith began fraudulently charging my American Express with 20 seperate transactions until XX/XX/XXXX when the activity was discovered. I immediately notified AMEX of the situation and gave them all known facts I had at the time. FACTS : a ). I had never done or had any relationship with the merchant. b ) The card was and remained in my possession. c ) all transactions from this merchant were fraudulent. c ). The Fraud was done under 2 very similar yet slightly different business names ( another indication of fraudulent activity ). 

Phone records document the report to AMEX was called in on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX The fraudulent merchant had made both fraudulent charges and then immediately on some fraudulent refunded the amount just fraudulently charged. The logic behind this lies somewhere in the criminals knowledge of avoiding AMEX fraud algorithms is my best explanation. Total fraudulent charges. {$33000.00}. Total Fraudulent Credits : XXXX. When all fraudulent activity was stopped, the criminal had defrauded my account by {$14000.00} of charges remaining on the card. 

I heard nothing further from AMEX until receiving a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, which stated that they had determined " you released your account number to the merchant for the transactions in question '' and based on this blatant lie, they not only denied the claim, they " reversed our previously issues credits ''. 

Over the next 8 ( eight ) months, AMEX ignored the mounting indisputable proof that these were fraud, despite dozens of phone calls. well over 100 hours of my professional time, {$4500.00} in expenses having to hire a private investigator, staff, and legal advisors ; all to force AMEX who did everything within their power to never cover the amount I was criminally defrauded, to finally admit their errors post the remaining fraudulently charged amount back to my account. 

I provided AMEX the. 
XXXX Police report, The report of the Private Investigator written report, A copy of DIRECT COMMUNICATION with the Merchant where is fully admits the charges were fraudulent and claimed he would be refunding them. ( he claimed a " rogue '' employee was responsible but never provided their info to the police or the PI .... then stopped all communications without doing anything. 

Proof the Criminal had only one legitimate business, Proof the and that the second business was also fraudulent. 
Proof that AMEX had issued the fraudulent " similar '' company a merchant ID account Proof that Amex allowed the same Merchant via " XXXX  '' to continue to defraud the account negligently, despite the GPS enabled receipts showing all activity occurring in the criminals last known home address. Many receipts had NO signature as required, and those that did needed no Graphology expert to see they bore no resemblance to my signature, which would have been available to AMEX 100 of 1000 of times from legitimate purchases. 

The ONLY written responses from AMEX : XX/XX/XXXX Denial letter based on the lie I had released my account info XX/XX/XXXX. Saying this wasn't fraud and it was being send to dispute dept XX/XX/XXXX. Claiming they needed to speak with me to get more information XX/XX/XXXX. Again claiming ALL the above provided documentation was insufficient and they would close the account without additional information Over the 8 months i called and spent hours trying to reach the " FRAUD TEAM '' who AMEX doesn't allow to accept incoming calls. ( odd since their letters all demanded I call them for additional information ). They would promise a call back in 48 business hours, but this rarely occurred. When it did, their number and name on CALLER-ID read everytime. " SPAM ALERT ''. So naturally I potentially didn't answer IF they tried calling when XXXX reports the caller as a SPAMMER. They later acknowledged they were aware of this, but it was never fixed. Almost every time I spoke to the agent highest up the chain that I was " allowed '' to speak with, they would review the previous " call records/info from me ''. AMEX agents had documented patently false information on at least 4 different occasions, dates, and Amex employees. 

These falsely documented items were supposedly quotes from myself during the dozens of follow-up phone calls. They included but are not limited to : * I admitted to an agent all the charges were legitimate * I had asked them to close the investigation * That I had given my card info to the merchant legitimately * The merchant had responded in writing and " proven '' the charges were correct, and I had received a letter Of course none of above ever occurred, Yet AMEX claimed their " documentation '' of our many discussions were the basis of their denial. I demanded transcripts of these calls since they were the only think AMEX used to make their decision, and was denied One two calls during the 8 months, the agent said that AMEX HAS REVIEWED AND FOUND IN YOUR FAVOR AND EXPECT THE MONEY WITHIN 72 hours. As you guess, that never happened either. 

Here are just a few of the case Amex Case numbers covering this 8+ month literal battle with Amex to force them to follow federal law. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Finally in XX/XX/XXXX, after contacting AMEX CEO, and their legal department did the FIRST dispute credit on this matter ever get placed on my account for the FIRST time EVER. Soon followed the undeniable result 8+ months after the initial notification and provided proof. 

In the course of my case alone AMEX violated federal law in the following ways : Violations include but are not limited to : *Failure to provisionally credit my account for each of the fraudulent transactions within the required timeframe. 
* Statements prove that the FIRST time amex placed anything in the proper dispute status appeared on the XX/XX/XXXX statement. EIGHT months after initial report. 

*Failure to promptly investigate the 20 reported fraudulent account transactions. 
*Failure to complete its investigation within 10 business days. ( Sect 205.l ( c ) ( l ) ) ofthe date of reported criminal fraud *Failure to report the results of its investigation within 3 business days after completion of its investigation * Failure to provide ANY supporting documentation EVER to this day used to make their decision to deny the clearly fraudulent activity * Systematically, deliberately, and always to provide " denial reasons '' on my fraud claim Amex thru a minimum of 5 different employees deliberately improperly " documented '' facts from my phone conversations that never occurred, and then used that to facilitate the denial of the claim * Failure to advise me of the ONE CR-FRAUD CREDIT on XX/XX/XXXX * Amex deprived me of use of almost {$15000.00} for over 8 months, by failing to follow federal law * Failure to provide ANY supporting documentation with any of the denial letters. 
* Despite being require to do so under Federal law * Despite innumerable verbal requests * Despite demands in writing But the greater concern and what has now become very clear to me, is that this is not an aberration or random outlier event. This is a company created, endorsed, and routinely used method to protect profits, flaunt federal law, and leave the victimized consumer RE-VICTIMIZED by American express. I implore CFPB to open and investigate not only my case, but review historical cases of other consumers who may/may not be informed enough to notify this agency. 

I will upload the most pertinent documentation, and am happy to supply the large amount of other supporting documentation, including but not limited to statements, call records, Report from Private investigator, transcripts on the direct initial text exchange with the PI and the Merchant where he fully admits these charges are fraud, what few letters/communications between amex, State of GA Secretary showing one of the AMEX merchant accounts was issued to a non-existent company, Receipts that show the geo-location of the transaction and prove I could not have been involved, along with the fake signatures, and much more. ALL of which was ignored deliberately by AMEX as they attempted to re-victimize me by protecting their profits and not their customer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief