Consumer complaint received 2026-04-28 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Card opened without my consent or knowledge
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
First I will paste the first statement submitted to American Express, the FTC/XXXX XXXX XXXX, the collections agency, and the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX on the identity theft and credit card fraud committed under my name. The collections agency- XXXX XXXX seems to have taken my complaint seriously, though I did not receive confirmation, I have not received follow up statements from them. Then I will include the follow up letter I am sending after AEs continued legally problematic behavior. Began receiving letters this fall from American Express claiming I owed them XXXX of dollars. As Ive never owned an American Express card, I assumed it was a scam and ignored it. Finally last month I tried to call AE. They insisted I give them my social security number or they couldnt do anything to help,, so I didnt even know if they were part of the scam, as the last thing you should be required to do is provide more sensitive information in such a case. I tried multiple numbers and couldnt get through to someone. Most fraud reporting for AE seems to be done through your digital account, but as Ive never had an account with AE, thats an impossibility for me. Just received a letter stating that my account has been referred to a real collections agency. Credit score also dropped precipitously. My mailing address is now in XXXX DC. My previous XXXX address shared a mailbox with my landlord. I do wonder if that had anything to do with how this began ; I had to file a police report on for harassment and trespassing earlier this year ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and she had access to my sensitive mail and like most XXXX I received may credit card offers there. Filed a report with XXXX XXXX. Seems AE hasnt even flagged the account as fraudulent, which is extremely irresponsible to put it mildly. Only thing they would tell me is that its not my email address on the account, but they wouldnt tell me whos it is. This is why Ive never received any digital communications about a bill so had no idea it was being used. - This is the follow up letter I am sending today to American Express, XXXX, XXXX, and CFPB. The XXXX XXXX XXXX also added information from this to the case notes on my initial report. - XXXX Dear American Express You have yet again sent me more letters claiming you didnt receive police reports or my passport or ____ or fillin the blank, even though I have detailed written records showing that I sent you the necessary documents that you claim to not have received .. At least twice. The documents you requested again were again mailed to you in XX/XX/year>. Why are you losing the documents? Or are you pretending they dont exist so that you dont have to face your own culpability? Or is this an attempt to stonewall when you have been informed multiple times that there is identify theft? Moreover, as Ive previously explained, I can not even access your fraud team, because in order to do so, I would need to be able to log into the account. And I cant do that, because its not my email address on the account, a fact you yourself have confirmed. It is just one more facet showing that this account has never belonged to me. I have no idea whats been charged on the card. Ive never seen the statements. And I have no idea why you want to insist that I have benefited from a card and account that I have never had any way to access or use. I am a journalist. I learned a long time ago that when something happens to me, I am almost 100 % of the time not special. In other words, this raises many red flags questions about the ethics of American Express, and I, as an investigative journalist am now wondering if I/others I work with need to investigate AE business practices. The only other way to access the fraud team ( forget the account, I have no access ) was to - over the phone- provide my social security number, something one should never do if youve been the victim of identity theft, as I have been when I was asked to provide my SSN, it made me wonder if I was even speaking to AE or I was speaking to fraudsters. And It begs the question : why would AE make it impossible for a victim of identify theft, one who, like me, has never had an AE card, to access or speak to the fraud department at AE? I wonder, why dont you want to prosecute the person whos committed identity theft, whose contact information you know and have, but seem to have withheld from the police and I. As a journalist, I have to ask : what are you hiding? Why are you protecting people stealing from your co? And why do you want to prosecute the victim of identity theft? Ive never had an AE credit card ( so never reaped the benefits from any, let alone this one, even though for some perplexing reason, you want to claim so. ) But I have had longstanding accounts with XXXX. When there is fraudulent activity on one of my XXXX accounts, it is very swiftly dealt with. I can not fathom why AE would not operate with the same level of professionalism. I have never seen the credit card statements fraudulently tied to my name, but I left town shortly before the fraudulent charges began being made. if you were to actually provide the documents to myself, the police, and the CFPB- you have already been asked to do so ) we could easily disprove them. I could easily show based on my actual local card purchases, travel documents, and medical treatment that where you have the AE credit card purchases being made on the fraudulent card, were you nowhere near me. Why do I believe that to be so? Whoever committed the fraud, had no idea where I was, especially considering that I was in a few different places and almost no one outside my family knew where I was at all times, so whoever did it wouldnt be able to match my actual physical location with wherever their purchases were made.mo At this point, the above described behavior on the part of American Express is not only fraud, but becoming harassment. And I wonder why AE doesnt have want to address it : is it because to do so would be to face your own culpability in the matter? I am requesting that this go to your upper management. This letter is also being sent to XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and the CFPB. XXXX received documents previously. I spoke with Officer XXXX at the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX about the case, providing more info, ongoing status ( AEs erroneous claims that I have benefited ), and AEs ongoing failure to provide documents/statements that could easily be used to disprove their case. The best number right now to reach me on is ____ ( cutting the number out for public posting ) XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief