Ya, that sounds a lot more fishy and like someone is going to care. I wouldn't risk it with large sums, the best is Amex just catches on and kicks you out (wonder if they would also disable your Canadian cards?) worst case someone wants to dig deeper to see what's going on (stolen credit card, money laundering, etc).

Find an airline or hotel or something with really generous change terms and book travel really really far in advance to hit min spend? Then changes dates somewhere down the road to something you'll actually be able to use? I mean that's still not terrible honest, but at least the money is staying with the company and being spent for it's intended reason...

I know people play this kind of game to keep companion fares valid as long as possible, etc