For anyone who has had their AAdvantage miles fraudulently stolen or used, the direct number to the AAdvantage account security department is 1-866-415-5363. They were extremely helpful. Hopefully this story will help you to understand how the fraud resolution process works. I will update this post as things move further along.

I woke this morning and was getting ready to head out to work. I checked my personal e-mail account and I had about 150 e-mails sent to me between about 4:45 and 5:15 AM local time. These were all online shops and vendors and I had been put on their promotional e-mail lists. They were from all over the world (Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, USA, you name it). Some were addressed to a random name (Amber, Phil, Julia, Ron, etc.). They were all legitimate, with unsubscribe links. I at first figured that my Barclays card had been used by Mrs. Rossodio somewhere online that dumped the associated e-mail address onto a bunch of e-mail list services. However, buried in the middle of the e-mails were the following:
1) An e-mail from the car rental vendor that AAdvantage car rentals uses confirming a rental under someone's name who I do not know for a 3 month rental for a Jeep Grand Cherokee with an associated 330,000 AAdvantage mile cost to my account at Salt Lake City airport to be picked up at 7AM local time/9AM EST. I have never been to Salt Lake City and know no one anywhere near there.
2) A second e-mail from AA confirming the redemption with similar information - the person's name on the rental, a confirmation code, etc.
3) A third e-mail that was a verification code to unlock my AA account.

None of the e-mails had been opened yet and there were no login attempts to my e-mail account overnight. This was apparently a straight up attempt to burn my miles to get a car for 3 months. After speaking with the fraud department at AAdvantage it seems that they occasionally see fraudsters use techniques like this - blasting e-mail lists at people to have the AA e-mails get buried so they don't notice them.

I first immediately changed my AAdvantage account password. I then checked all of my bank/credit card/venmo/etc. accounts to make sure no suspicious activity; thankfully none. I next called the number in the car rental e-mail to try to head off the rental. Unable to cancel on the website since the rental was less than 24 hours away but I did also send a message through the website marked urgent in order to keep the rental from happening. I also called Payless - the rental car company as opposed to the AAdvantage car rentals vendor - to do the same and they contacted the manager and security at the Salt Lake City location which no one else seemed to be able to do. I am still not sure if the rental was prevented, as it was scheduled for 7AM mountain time which is exactly when the AA fraud department opens and when the rental folks got called.

After doing the above I then contacted AAdvantage customer service who transferred me to the fraud department. I got the direct number noted above. The fraud department said that they should be able to get my miles back and went through a process of securing my account. Here is what happens if you have to go through the process:
1) They freeze your AAdvantage account.
2) They make a new account and AAdvantage number for you and transfer all of the remaining miles from your old account into the new one. There are additional requirements for the new account - the account name for example cannot contain any part of your name or other personal information. It also must be registered to a different e-mail address than your prior account. Most of your information transfers to the new account such as known traveler number, but some you have to add yourself including the security questions and your passport number. Loyalty points and status do not transfer immediately but "should within 24 hours" on which I am still waiting. Flight credits do not transfer but can still be used. Companion certificates I am not sure about and plan to ask in the coming days.
3) They state that the miles that were stolen would be reinstated at some point in the next 30 days. Still waiting on this. Thankfully no plans to redeem miles within that window.

I did ask questions regarding whether my new AAdvantage number would transfer over to various accounts automatically. The Barclays Aviator card will have the number changed automatically. AAdvantage eShopping you have to re-register with your new account (unclear if they can pull information from the old account including old activity and the 20% bonus as a loyalty point award but I am working to find that out). AAdvantage dining you have to call customer service. I have a VIP account with them and hopefully can get this transferred over - also still pending but will update here once I find out for sure. Avis President's Club benefit as a loyalty point award I am not sure about but will be contacting Avis to get that sorted and will update here once I know.

One other thing I thought of was that I had booked a miles redemption for a flight in march with my family; I did notify the fraud department that that booking was legitimate. She made it sound as if I had not told her, it may have been marked as fraudulent - I wonder if it would have been canceled and need to be rebooked, if even still available, and possibly at a higher cost. I am very interested to see if my status benefits transfer over to that booking since my FF number will be changing on it.

Again I will update once I see more things come through in terms of reinstatement of miles and the questions I had above.



Update: I received this e-mail from the security department to my new e-mail associated with the second AAdvantage account:
American Airlines AAdvantage Account Security - Police Report Request (XXXX12345XXXX) Hello xxxx,

****** Please reply to this message, follow directions and do not change
the subject line so we receive your information within the allotted time
frame******


Thank you for contacting AAdvantage® Customer Service regarding the
unauthorized access to your AAdvantage® account. American Airlines®
takes claims of identity theft very seriously, and we investigate each
matter thoroughly to ensure no AAdvantage® policies were violated.

Award disputes reported within 3 months of redemption will be submitted
for investigation, and must include a completed identity theft police
report that you have filed with your local police department. The police
report must include the following:

Date of transaction: 1/xx/2024
Name(s) of suspect(s)/passenger(s): xxxx xxxx
Amount of miles disputed: 330,200
Total value of the miles disputed: $9,741

We must have the completed report. Report numbers will not be accepted,
and American Airlines® cannot request reports on your behalf. We will
need all documents to be submitted to our offices within 30 days from
today. Please reply to this email with your completed police report. The
attachment should not be a web link but rather a PDF file or a
screenshot.

We appreciate your efforts to safeguard the integrity of the AAdvantage®
Program. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for being one of our AAdvantage Executive Platinum® members.

Have a great day!

Regards,

xxxx xxxx
AAdvantage® Customer Service
American Airlines® [email protected] <[email protected]> Fri, Jan 12, 2024 at 2:38 PM Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]