Consumer complaint received 2024-03-28 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
XXXX and I are in our early XXXX and we believe we are experiencing elder abuse from American Express. 

We have had an Amex card for over 50 years and are mystified at the responses we have received from American Express as they are demanding we pay for over XXXX fraudulent charges from a company called XXXX XXXX using XXXXXXXX XXXX in XXXX that add up to {$62000.00} - AND interest on these charges. I called the fraud department 9 times during that 2 month period and never got any help or satisfaction. They tell us the issue is closed and they are pursuing us for payment. To be clear we have NEVER traveled to XXXX or any country in that region of the world, nor has any of our family members nor have we ever purchased or communicated with this company. In addition, we have NEVER used XXXX XXXX, nor set up our American Express card for use in XXXX XXXX 

The fraud started with small charges that went undetected by us and American Express starting in XXXX of XXXX from a company in XXXX named XXXX XXXX using XXXX XXXX as demonstrated on our XX/XX/XXXX statement. Attachment ( A ) - page XXXX. 

It wasnt until XX/XX/XXXX that the fraudsters got aggressive with fraudulent charges to the account. As soon as we received our XX/XX/XXXX statement we called the American Express Fraud Department to report the fraud on XX/XX/XXXX. This is when the run around by American Express started with them giving credit back for the fraudulent charges only to be reversed in subsequent letters. See the letters received from American Express in Attachment ( B ). BTW we cant explain the various amounts in the Amex letters where they recognized smaller dollar amounts of fraud and issued credits in those amounts. But, all the credits have been reversed as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

In a call to the Amex XXXX XXXX. on XX/XX/XXXX -we spoke with an Amex rep named XXXX for over an hour. XXXX told us that a call was made to me ( XXXX XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX, to affirm the legitimacy of some charges made by the XXXX company - XXXX XXXX using XXXX XXXX - and he claimed I confirmed there legitimacy. However, THIS NEVER HAPPENED! Since we know that all of their calls are reordered, we asked to hear the recording they did not respond to this request. My son, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Vice President of a large Michigan Bank joined me on this call and can confirm this information. In a subsequent call and letters, Amex claimed that I gave the perpetrator my card number that allowed this. Once again, THIS NEVER HAPPENED. If Amex used information from that phone call as a basis for claim denial, they must provide a recording of the call, if requested. If Amex sent an email or text message to confirm transaction activity, they must provide proof of that communication and customer response as well. Neither of which was provided. 

After the Amex fraud employee named XXXX dove deeper into the account, he realized that a massive fraud had taken place and involved his supervisor and put us on a long hold. When he came back on the line, he asked us to give him time to study this situation and he assured us that he was taking over the case PERSONALLY along with his supervisor and he asked permission to call back the next day ( XX/XX/XXXX ). Of course we agreed and looked forward to his call. However, that call never came and repeated attempts to get back in touch with XXXX were denied even though their own call log clearly identified XXXX by name and employee number. They simply would not allow us to speak with him again. 

In fact, the vast majority of the charges happened XXXX XXXX ( XXXX days AFTER the supposed verification call ) with over XXXX identical charges of XXXX yen that were either {$67.00} or {$68.00} based on that days currency exchange rate. See XXXX XXXX Attachment ( C ) for large amount of fraudulent charges. Even IF, the verification call from Amex occurred as they say it did AND IF confirmation was given, there were XXXX charges made by XXXX XXXX using Apple Pay in the months preceding this call for various amounts from XXXX yen to XXXX yen ( under {$35.00} ) that went undetected. However, it was XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX ( after the supposed verification call ) that XXXX XXXX using XXXX XXXX really went wild and charged identical XXXX yen transactions ( {$67.00} or {$68.00} ) over XXXX times. Clearly the Amex XXXX alert did not function properly when a single vendor makes hundreds of identical charges in a short period of time. Even if the initial charges were legitimate, that does not give a vendor the permission to charge hundreds of identical transactions days after this verification call supposedly took place especially when the limit on the card is {$25000.00} and the charges more than DOUBLE the limit. 

I repeat - There were over XXXX charges from a company called XXXX XXXX using XXXX XXXX in XXXX. Our spending limit on the card has always been {$25000.00} and we NEVER have used XXXX XXXX. American Express is expected to monitor that amount so that the balance can never go over {$25000.00}. We have used our Amex card for normal household expenses and always pay the balance off each month. One payment XX/XX/XXXX was for {$6500.00} and another XX/XX/XXXX for {$3700.00} for our normal expenses. XXXX of the men we spoke with took a great deal of time to add up some of the charges ( see XXXX Credits XX/XX/XXXX for {$5600.00} in Attachment ( B ) ) and he actually gave us a credit for that amount. Why he did not do all of them we do not know. We thought that was what he was doing on the phone because he was gone from the call for so long. We did not know he did not remove all the false charges until we got our next statement. Every time we call, it is SO frustrating because they ask us what our problem is but never help. When we ask to speak to a supervisor or XXXX, they never allow it. XXXX person told us to fax all of our proof to the American Express XXXX XXXX which we did XX/XX/XXXX along with a letter from me. See Attachment ( D ). We no longer have a fax machine so we had to go to a FedeX to send the fax.. Proof of the fax attached. We never heard from them. 

We also sent a set of documents to the AMEX headquarters in Texas as additional proof. I also wrote a handwritten letter to the CEO of AMEX in New York, XX/XX/XXXX, asking for his help. See Attachment ( XXXX ). We never heard back from him either. We believe we have done everything within our power to settle this. 

Amex insists that we gave this Japanese company permission to charge us because we gave them our numbers which is absolutely ridiculous!!! We never had any contact with that company nor would we EVER have given our account number to anyone. See how they refer to this in several of the letters they sent as the reason they wont honor our claim. They insist that it is closed, period. See Attachment ( B ) final letter.

Further, we believe American Express violated the law when they sent their denial of claim letter ( s ). See Attachment ( I ). In each of these four letters, they use the phrase According to documented company records ... this does not provide adequate information as to why Amex is denying the claim ( s ). When a bank provides a written notice of an unauthorized electronic funds transfer ( EFT ), they must include a statement that the customer has the right to request the documents the bank relied upon to make its determination ( 12 CFR Part 1005.11 ( d ) ( 1 ) ). These claim denial notices contain no such statement. 

We have not yet received our XXXX statement but I am quite sure they expected us to make a $ XXXX payment with interest. We do not intend to pay them anymore than we owe them, if anything, since we have not used our card since this all began. Of course, they immediately closed our account when it began. They also demanded our financial information, including XXXX bank statements and proof of Social Security income. They wanted to verify our ability to pay these fraudulent charges! We complied with them and you will see the cover letter we sent along with our financial information in Attachment ( F ). Although we removed our personal financial information for this correspondence. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we sent a letter to Amex demanding they remove ALL of these fraudulent charges and reinstate my card as well as rescind any damage done to my credit. See Attachment ( G ). There has been no response from Amex other than the letters in Attachment ( B ). 

You will see in our XX/XX/XXXX Statement Attachment ( H ) where Amex gave a credit for SOME of the fraudulent charges for {$9400.00} only to later withdraw the credit and demand full payment and close their investigation in letters in Attachment ( B ). 
In summary, these are fraudulent unauthorized transactions, Amex did not follow the provisions set forth in 12 CFR Part 1005.11 Procedures for resolving errors, and as such, all unauthorized transactions and interest from these transactions should be credited back to our account.

If you could possibly help us to straighten this whole mess out we would be so grateful. There is no AMEX office in Michigan that we could go to sit down with someone in person to show them how faulty this whole thing is. All we want to do is have all the fraud charged removed from our account and our account reopened, and an apology would be nice too!!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation