Consumer complaint received 2023-09-18
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
My experience with American Express Bank Disappearance of $ XXXX my account In XX/XX/XXXX I decided to open an account with American Express Bank XXXX XXXX because of the attractive interest rate offered at that time. I have been an American Express credit card customer since XXXX. Presently I hold XXXX Amex credit cards, which I always pay in time. My credit rating is excellent and could be better if I had a mortgage or auto loan. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I discovered with surprise that some {$110000.00} was missing from my account. I could see that during the previous few days XXXX withdrawals had been made from my account, namely on XXXX XXXX {$19000.00}, on XXXX {$24000.00}, on XXXX XXXX {$36000.00}, on XXXX {$9800.00}, on XXXX XXXX {$29000.00} and on XXXX XXXX an attempt was made to withdraw another {$10000.00}. I ( not the Bank ) was able to stop this last transfer. I suppose that if I had not discovered these withdrawals from my account on XXXX XXXX and even stopped the last one, my account would have been completely emptied. 

According to the account details seen on the internet, all the above-shown withdrawals went to XXXX, Division of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Apparently, an account in my name had been opened with this bank. I have never heard of this Bank before, nor have I had any relations with this bank. 

On the same day, namely XXXX XXXX XXXX I called the XXXX Bank to report the problem and talked to XXXX. XXXX ( XXXX XXXX. XXXX ) and was given the case XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX assured me that this matter would be investigated and that within XXXX working days, I would receive a complete report regarding the findings. I also insisted that my account should be frozen in the meantime, to avoid further withdrawals. In the meantime, I also reported this matter to Identitytheft.gov but believe they do not get involved and they only collect data for statistical purposes. 

Today, XX/XX/XXXX, after XXXX working days have passed, I spend several hours on the phone to reach someone knowledgeable at the XXXX XXXX. I was finally able to speak with someone at the fraud department ( XXXX option XXXX ) and was told that the investigation was still ongoing and that I would receive notice of the outcome by mail, which might still take some XXXX weeks. Very disappointing from a bank I trusted. 

The Amex Bank is a virtual Bank, meaning that deposits and withdrawals can only be made via another bank. In order to do so, it is necessary to match or mate a conventional bank with the Amex Bank account. This takes XXXX days, because the Amex bank XXXX XXXX a deposit of several cents to the conventional bank and will also withdraw several cents from the conventional bank account. It is then necessary to confirm to the Amex Bank the exact amounts deposited and withdrawn from the conventional Bank. Only after that, this connection is valid. I had matched XXXX of my conventional accounts with Amex Bank, namely XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and XXXX. 

When entering my account on XXXX XXXX I noticed that XXXX  XXXX XXXX and XXXX had been eliminated as matched and instead a new Bank by the name of XXXX had been inserted. Apparently, no matching deposit nor withdrawal had been made by Amex Bank to allow this new Bank. 

During the years my experience has been that Amex has always been very vigilant with their credit card activities, notifying their customers immediately if irregularities are noticed. It is surprising that Amex Bank does not seem vigilant at all with the deposits of their banking customers. No phone calls or messages. The daily withdrawals from my account were completely irregular to my normal banking activity. Why would I withdraw funds from the Amex Bank account on a daily basis for deposit in XXXX and the same conventional account? I also ask myself, why no larger amounts were withdrawn, considering that whoever was involved had access in seeing the total amount in this account. Frankly, I do suspect that this could have been an inside job. 

Nowadays much personal information is public domain and easily accessible. Even the Social Security Number, which I always hesitate to disclose completely is not that secret, considering that many institutions, including banks, require the complete number. However, I do consider the Account Password a better security and I would have absolutely no explanation for how someone could have gotten access to my password, which by the way I changed immediately after XXXX XXXX. 

It is also unexplainable, how anyone could have known of my account with the Amex Bank, considering that I do regular banking with XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX. The only explanation could be that the same password is used for XXXX XXXX and Banking. Since it is necessary to access XXXX XXXX more frequently ( for payment ), the web page, showing also the Bank account, is exposed more frequently. 

It seems that I have no other alternative than to wait until the Amex Bank concludes its findings, whenever that might be. In the meantime, my account is frozen and there is no access for withdrawal. If Amex Bank concludes that this is an identity fraud, then my question is, what is their responsibility? I personally am convinced that their security is flawed and their responsibility remains to be seen. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Fl. XXXX Cel. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation