Indeed. If you use HockeyCoachBen as your handle on social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc) it may be straightforward for anyone to figure out your probable identity. However, using that information to contact a cardholder through another channel or tamper with an account transaction would seem to be very poor practice. In this example you may not care that someone cancelled a payment, but I think you can see the potential for abuse.
Wow! Good point. That never even crossed my mind. I was able to call the number on the back of my card later in the day and verify the email and person who sent the email were legitimate.
The agent who I spoke to was able to find the person who sent the email in his company directory, find her extension number and offered to transfer me to her. He did also verify there is a "lesser known" 'Executive Member Relations' department but they mostly deal with "high profile and celebrity clients who have issues with their accounts" (his words). I can assure you, I am neither (high profile nor celebrity).
As for the payment being cancelled, I would assume it was an automatic thing? Since the $200 for the gift cards was the only outstanding balance on my account, the payment would leave me with a credit balance. Maybe? I'm not sure. Neither was the rep who spoke with.
The thing that struck me as the strangest part of this whole email was how tongue-in-cheek the references to my "excessive extra airline fees" were. It was almost like there was some joke I wasn't in on. It seemed pretty clear that she knew I didn't spend the $200 on fees and didn't care? Obviously, since she references someone monitoring this thread, there must be some level of knowledge of what the purchases actually were for. And knowing full well that was in violation of the reimbursement terms.
Originally Posted by
Stgermainparis
Do your GC entries on Amex have ticket numbers?
This is what shows up on each of the transactions on my account...
Category: Travel - Airline
Document Type: SPD/Air Freight/Cargo
Ticket Number: xXxXxXxXxXxXx (13-digit number on both transactions)