Consumer complaint received 2021-10-30
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Can't close your account
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (IL)

serval months ago i received an email from American express informing of a possible fraudulent charge on my card end in XXXX which I havent used because i tore it up long ago. I believe it was a {$4.00} charge from XXXX XXXX XXXX not even USA. 
i believe this was a fake email from AE to get me to contact them due to lack of usage because when i called AE they only cared about asking me 100 questions why i was no longer using my card. Im unable to login to my account without my card number and AE says they cant reset my password without sending me the card FIRST that is a lie they just dont want me close my account online! Several months ago I talked to many techs and asked many times to have my account closed due to possible fraud ( {$4.00} ) and lack of usage. They kept insisting it was a fraudulent charge that would be removed and that they would send me a new card. i kept saying no just cancel/close the account. they assured me it would be closed but by the end of the call the lady just said " your new card will be arriving shortly '' like i was a dummy and i was because i just said ok because i wanted to get off the phone expecting to close it later. Today i received another email from AE saying my card was about to be overdue. They told me it was now {$10.00} because they never removed the {$4.00} charge. I asked for them to reset my online account password but he said they can only send me a new card which seems like a lie. So i asked him to close " any and all accounts '' associated with me. He said he closed 2 account ( one btw has {$30.00} credit on which proves i dont need their {$10.00} ). he ( XXXX employee # XXXX ) transferred me to the fraud department to dispute the charge made on XXXX XXXX. The tech says ive filed a dispute btw " would you like me to send you a new card? ". i was in shock i said the tech before you just closed my accounts, he said no your account is still opened. I told him when i started talking to him that since he was recording the call that i would record it also for my protection as this sounds like a fraud to me. when he told me my account was still opened AFTER they told me it was closed proving they dont want to close my account i told him im glad i recorded them lying to me. he told me i would have to stop recording if i wanted to continue the call and close my account. i told him i did stop but he didnt believe me. he then said im going to close out your account after i hang up with you ok and he just hung up. he clearly knew what he was doing was wrong and quickly got off the phone. i have a feeling they still wont close my account but i have him on recording stating he will close my account before he hung up. i feel like im being held hostage by AE with a fake {$4.00} fraudulent charge. Even more suspicious when i confronted the tech about AE sending me a fake email about a fraudulent charge just to get me to contact them to see why i was no longer using my card they tech said there are a lot of fake email scams out there. i told him i googled AE phone number and never click on any links and AE confirmed that email me still insisted the i email i receieved and still have was FAKE SCAM. Ive had to deal with this for months. Im XXXX senior citizen on SSI. why is the multibillion dollar company allowed to abuse their customers in this manner? this feels like false imprisonment.