Amex data leak

[Anonymous]

Dear XXX XXXXXX,

I am writing to inform you of an unfortunate issue concerning your American Express Card.

We recently learned that certain account data was acquired without authorization by an employee who is no longer with the company. The former employee was arrested, and we are cooperating with law enforcement authorities with their ongoing investigation.[...]

Anyone else got these letters? I understand that I'm not responsible for fraudulent charges, just curious was it large-scale or not.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

What kind of compensation did they offer you?

[llecs]

Here's an article from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/13/business/AP-US-American-Express-Data-Theft.html

[Anonymous]

The "compensation" was an additional fraud monitoring on my account, dedicated toll-free number for victims of this incident and the priceless advice to monitor my statement carefully. :-)

Anyways, they assure that no SSNs were compromised, so it's probably not as bad as it sounds.

llecs

Thanks for the link!

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The "compensation" was an additional fraud monitoring on my account, dedicated toll-free number for victims of this incident and the priceless advice to monitor my statement carefully. :-)

Anyways, they assure that no SSNs were compromised, so it's probably not as bad as it sounds.

llecs

Thanks for the link!

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Sounds to me like they gave you nothing. I would write them a very irate letter and try to get them to give you something of real value for all of the anxiety they are causing you. A free year of a credit monitoring service would be nice...

[haulingthescoreup]

Countrywide (may their offspring be forever cursed) had an employee who stole many customer records towards the end, including our mortgage info. They charmingly gave my husband a year of free monitoring through Experian, and nothing for me, despite the fact that I was a joint account holder, and presumably my info was compromised instead. I didn't pursue it, as I'm already monitored out the wazoo, but I agree with CWCID that they should give you free monitoring. (Sounds like you said they did that, but I wasn't sure.)

[creditwherecreditisdue]

I got better compensation from Wachovia when my info was pinched by a snook a few years ago. I never really took advantage of it, but it was offered. (This was a famous NJ case involving a conspiracy between Wachovia employees, NJ DMV employees and a JDB-C/attorney.) Fortunately they were pinched before the info was distributed to any one outside the immediate loop. Wachovia was very forthcoming in the matter and I give them big points for it.

As far as additional fraud monitoring is concerned I don't believe it. That just means they are going to try a little harder to make sure there is no fraudulent use of your card. They can't really do much more than that and given that it is AMEX I doubt they will be looking any harder than they already look at everything else.

[Anonymous]

My husband got one of these letters. He's AU on my Blue Cash, and it seems his data was compromised, while mine (if my lack of letter is anything to go by) wasn't. AmEx makes mention that while plenty of other info was stolen, SSNs weren't. Oh, so that's alright, then.... (I would do the unimpressed-looking smiley face here, but the smileys don't seem to like Safari). 



Hauling's eta: Is this what you were trying for? --

(hope you don't mind me trespassing on your post)!

how to make smileys without the graphical editor

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 08-16-2009 06:37 PM

[Anonymous]

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creditwherecreditisdue wrote: 

As far as additional fraud monitoring is concerned I don't believe it. That just means they are going to try a little harder to make sure there is no fraudulent use of your card. They can't really do much more than that and given that it is AMEX I doubt they will be looking any harder than they already look at everything else.

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When my husband first got his card as an AU on my AmEx account (2 people using one Blue Cash account = actually worth having the card), AmEx kept rejecting purchases and freezing his card on an almost-daily basis for about the first month, for "security" reasons. It wasn't one of those "we need the current balance paid before we can allow any more purchases" deal (they were letting my purchases through with no problems), just that their fraud monitoring software (or whatever) threw a fit at each and every (very mundane) purchase he tried to make. I had to call them multiple times over the course of a few weeks because, yet again, I'd had a call from the husband to say his card wasn't working, for whatever reason. I really, REALLY hope their "additional fraud monitoring" on his account doesn't take that form, again! 

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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creditwherecreditisdue wrote: 

As far as additional fraud monitoring is concerned I don't believe it. That just means they are going to try a little harder to make sure there is no fraudulent use of your card. They can't really do much more than that and given that it is AMEX I doubt they will be looking any harder than they already look at everything else.

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When my husband first got his card as an AU on my AmEx account (2 people using one Blue Cash account = actually worth having the card), AmEx kept rejecting purchases and freezing his card on an almost-daily basis for about the first month, for "security" reasons. It wasn't one of those "we need the current balance paid before we can allow any more purchases" deal (they were letting my purchases through with no problems), just that their fraud monitoring software (or whatever) threw a fit at each and every (very mundane) purchase he tried to make. I had to call them multiple times over the course of a few weeks because, yet again, I'd had a call from the husband to say his card wasn't working, for whatever reason. I really, REALLY hope their "additional fraud monitoring" on his account doesn't take that form, again! 

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Were I you I'd be concerned. You're best off with Amex when they aren't looking at you.