Consumer complaint received 2018-11-07
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
As this has been demonstrated time after time, recently a call was placed to my office/home stating that AMEX fully is aware of this scam and that because of bank flaws and loop holes these perpetrators were able to scam the system. I should not be responsible for these bank flaws or loop holes. As your AMEX representative stated because of my good credit they were able to use that credit as leverage to exploit the banking system and use this as a float to extract the money. There should have been further safeguards in this system such as notification that this was not my account that they used to perpetrate the crime. There should have been safeguards that when the money was first paid by putting on the XXXX there should have been notification to my email that this money may or may not be credited and that it could take up to several months to clear. None of these safe guards were in place to show that my security was protected but because of my credit that is all that AMEX was concerned being a high net worth client. AMEX used my high net worth as leverage to make this money good. IF this was stated to me in an email or some form of a written communication this would never gone further and would have prevented this entire scenario and that is why AMEX is at fault. If safeguards were in place, I would have then read an email stating an unidentified account has been authorized to pay XXXX and that this money can be withdrawn or clawed back up to x days or months. With this type of warning, not a warning on the immediate screen if one does appear there, but an email or text telling me what someone just did, this would have stopped the SCAM immediately. Additionally, the representative of last week told me that I would hear about the verbal transaction within 48 hours. This never occurred, and I am still waiting for them to confirm that the verbal authorization from XXXX bank was not me but an imposter that would show again, how AMEX allowed this to happened and penetrate or violate their own security Again, this will be shown as was told by your representative that they would get back to me in 48 hours. IT is now 10 days later. Again, more wrong information. Having demonstrated by AMEX time and time again wrong information is given, whether it be by a representative, manager etc., every time information seems to be changing on your side of how this will be settled. Furthermore, one of the perpetrators stated that they have business partners that allows these banks to be scammed of their information This is a total scam and everyone participated in. I believe that AMEX did not follow good business practices in protecting me when the XXXX first came into my account Who did it we know, but how they did it there should be liability on AMEX and to know that the money should not be immediately cleared based on my credit alone. They knew it came from a new bank and I should have been warned and informed that this money may not be available and cleared for a period of time. And this is the warning that you should text or communicate to parties that they could be responsible for monies being clawed back etc., but that if AMEX had better protection over this it would not have happened. AMEX claims that I allowed someone on my portal, however to protect this, if a text or email was sent to me alerting that something was done, I could have asked or inquired or even perhaps you could even send a disclaimer out notifying that this money could be clawed back since this new account was not my bank account. Perhaps these are the measures that AMEX should do to prevent this from happening and I would be more than happy to make suggestions to protect your good clients. However, if these safeguards were in place, I wouldnt have given any of these people a dime to create more expenses and losses. I hope that AMEX reads this from a humanitarian perspective and uses this information to fix their system and write off these monies, restoring my good name and credit and my AMEX points of XXXX and Delta Sky Miles XXXX. IF you really value me as a customer you would use this to fix your flawed banking system as your own customer representative stated to me the other day This was just sent to XXXX XXXX XXXX   will be shown to have not performed a proper security of their own account holder that impersonated one of your legitimate account holders to authorize the payment to my company. Your security was breached and the person acting on your behalf should have performed a more thorough security check by going off line and making sure this is the person that was intended to release such money and as a result of your lack and regard for who your client supposedly was and not properly authenticating same you authorized payment to my account that was clawed back. In addition to this security breach because they were able to obtain information of your client, they put this information and paid my initial credit card balance of XXXX or so and therefore induced us to spend more money on this scam ... Because they were able to steal your clients personal information and bank information this allowed this SCAM to take place. This will be shown in court and you will be liable for damages. This will go to the media etc. to show that your bank allowed these scammers to violate and steal information. I want you to pay AMEX the  XXXX and I will not pursue this further. AMEX already admitted that where are flaws in the banking system and loop holes. IF you dont want this to go further, I would recommend you address this with AMEX This was just sent to XXXX XXXX XXXX Your bank will be shown that XXXX or so was fraudulently obtained by a perpetrator to pay monies owed to me and they stole the identity of one of your account holders and entered this into my AMEX portal for services that required payment. Unbeknown to me at that time, that this bank information was obtained by internal workers at your bank that are paid as business partners to obtain such information to defraud people and business like myself. As a result, when the scam was paid, they pulled off the monies back as unauthorized. IF you had better security, I would not be out this money. Because they were able to steal your clients personal information and bank information this allowed this SCAM to take place. This will be shown in court and you will be liable for damages. This will go to the media etc. to show that your bank allowed these scammers to violate and steal information. I want you to pay AMEX the XXXX and I will not pursue this further. AMEX already admitted that where are flaws in the banking system and loop holes. IF you dont want this to go further, I would recommend you address this with AMEX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation