Consumer complaint received 2022-06-15
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: AZ
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:
I identified multiple, recurring charges from XXXX XXXX to my XXXX American Express card starting on XX/XX/XXXX and ending in XX/XX/XXXX. These charges do not exist on any transaction list tied to ANY XXXX account owned by ANYONE in the household. The credit card involved was also not tied to ANY XXXX account we own during the period of these unknown charges. The credit in question however was replaced automatically due to American Express ' fraud detection system in the Fall of XXXX ( further confirming fraud had occurred or was likely to occur ). 

The charges were as follows : XX/XX/XXXX - {$14.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$20.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$14.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$26.00} XX/XX/XXXX- {$14.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX XXXX {$9.00} XXXX XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$14.00} XXXX XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$14.00} XXXX XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$14.00} XXXX XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$9.00} XXXX XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX XXXX- {$14.00} XXXX XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX. XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX. XXXX - {$14.00} XXXX. XXXX - {$9.00} XXXX. XXXX - {$16.00} XXXX. XXXX - {$7.00} XX/XX/XXXX- {$16.00} XXXX  = {$360.00} I am shocked that the federal government would put consumers in the situation where neither the credit card issuer nor the merchant will respond to ANY dispute/refund request or even start a dispute investigation UNTIL the consumer ferries backend database information on each transaction from the credit card issuer ( which they apparently didn't give to me correctly ). 

XXXX is now in a position to be targeted continuously for fraudulent prime subscriptions and seems completely uninterested in addressing the issue. 

This kind of market behavior in the face of consumer complaints is precisely why the CFPB was set up. 

I would like the total amount above refunded ASAP. 




















I contacted American Express to block these fraudulent charges in XXXX and they have stopped. 

When I called again to dispute all the fraudulent charges and recapture my funds from American Express, I was told that they can't initiate a dispute for any charges linked to XXXX UNTIL I contact XXXX and get them to flag them as unauthorized from their end. 

XXXX, in turn, demanded to know the " Charge IDs '' for every transaction. 

When I went back to American Express, they claimed to give me all the transaction data, including " reference numbers '' and alphanumeric codes for each transaction with XXXX. I have them in email form for all of the fraudulent transactions. 

When I called XXXX again to have these transactions flagged as unauthorized, they claimed the codes I had weren't " Charge IDs. '' American Express is favoring XXXX of their largest merchants by throwing up a database roadblock to disputing fraudulent charges. It's unacceptable that because XXXX is huge, their normal dispute process does not work. When the consumer says a charges I unauthorized after their own due diligence, then I should not have to justify to the merchant that it is unauthorized. American express has a non-transparent dispute policy favoring their largest, highest volume merchants.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief