- Report: #1362689
Complaint Review: American Express - Nationwide
Reported By:
dand1001 -
ANAHEIM, California, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
American Express
Nationwide, USA
Web:
https://www.americanexpress.com/
Categories:
Business Rating:
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American Express Home Depot The Home Depot gift cards issued by American express are used fraudulently if you don't use your balance right away. Nationwide
This scam heppened to me TWICE. I got a gift card from American Express for a $500 Home Depot Gift Card. When I went to use it 3 months after I got it, the entire balance had been stolen. I checked with Home Depot and the money was spent at a Home Depot Store not even close to my home. American Express sent me ANOTHER $500 Home Depot Gift Card and this time I used some of it shortly after I got it and had a $272 balance remaining. When I went to make a purchase yesterday, the money AGAIN was all gone. I wasted TWO HOURS in Home Depot while they made calls and we were put on hold. I finally got out of them that there were TWO online purchases made with MY GIFT CARD but they would not confirm where those purchases were sent. Now I have to call the fraud department and waste more of my time.
The point here is that either American Express or Home Depot have a dishonest employee working in the card issuing department who has access to the card numbers and pin numbers. The fraud was committed about 90 days after I first received each card, so I suspect they check on card balances after 3 months and if the cards are not being used regularly they start charging on them.
When I spoke to Home Depot they had a lousy attitude, telling me the "cards are like CASH" Well they are NOT. If I had CASH in my wallet it would still be there. It is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that no one is capable of stealing balances, and since this has been on the news and posted elsewhere, they should not act as if I should be the loser due to their lack of security.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Update to my report:
#2Author of original report
Thu, April 13, 2017
American Express investigated my claim and restored the points for the stolen gift card dollars to my account, so they made it good voluntarily. A different employee from Home Depot advised me that I should make my report to American Express since it is they who gave me the card as an incentive to use their card. As a point of advice I have changed MY SYSTEM. I now use e-gift cards as I feel they are not handled by humans, might be harder to defraud. ALSO I wait until I have a proposed purchase, then I order an e-gift card for close to the amount, make my purchase immediately, and don't carry gift cards of more than $50 on me. This reduces the temptation by scammers who can get $500 in one scam. They are far less likely to bother with e-gift cards in denominations of $15 to $50 than they would to target the larger denomination cards. So I hope this advice will help curb the abuse of the gift card system and also restore the reputation of American Express who has been very cooperative in replacing my loss.
Dan Anaheim, California
