This is completely correct.

However, when I recently logged in with a different IP than my norm, it triggered a re-verification of identity by AP.

I totally agree with you that AP could find all my bogus accounts in a snap if it was a priority for them. But it's not accurate to say that IP addresses don't matter at all. For some people - like you - it hasn't mattered, and you extrapolate that to mean that it doesn't matter for everybody. But for other people - like me - logging in via a different IP address can trigger a red flag. Who wants to trigger red flags when you have a golden goose? Not me.

Maybe the IP thing matters more for people with a large number of AP accounts?

Does anyone really think that Amazon - the company whose pattern recognition algorithms and predictive modeling approaches introduced the idea of "you may also be interested in" and "others who looked at this also bought x" to the world - needs to run down your IP to figure out what you're doing?

Would be far easier for them to have some quant jock write some code that detects the transaction pattern of someone who's churning money. And far more accurate as well.

If you really want to stop dead in your tracks, think about this:

You know when you're on FB and you start seeing ads for that tent you were looking at on REI.com yesterday? Think about how they know to serve you that ad.

Go ahead. Take a minute.

Give it another thirty seconds.

Got it?

Now think about whether you've ever logged into your Amazon Payments account using the same computer that you used to visit Flyer Talk, the Manufactured Spending forum, and even this very thread.

You've got paint on the bottom of your shoes, and anyone who wants to know where you've been previously can figure it out.

Do you think that if I was willing to go to the trouble to assign a unique IP address to each of my multiple AP accounts, that I wouldn't also go to the trouble to use anonymous web surfing techniques?

Go ahead. Take a minute.

Give it another 30 seconds.

Got it?

I understand that avoiding IP redundancy doesn't provide foolproof protection from AP shutdown. But logging into multiple bogus AP accounts from a single identical IP seems obviously to be asking for problems. In my case, it triggered an identity audit.

Anybody having issues with AMEX GCs on AP? I set it up with the wrong date then changed it to the correct date. It says it is pending for review. Did I do something wrong or is this message common?

Search this thread with the word "pending" ;)

anyone having trouble logging into AP today?

Ok, I thought it was just me. I'm glad this site is around. When I enter my password, it just clears it out and acts like I didn't enter any info. It's the correct password.

Same here - hope it's nothing serious ;)

No issue for me.

No problem just now.

I logged in to AP around 9am CST today; no problems.

I just got in. Not sure what that was about. Moving along...

Only just now @ 9.40 PST able to complete payment after trying for more than 45 min.

The site had login issues around 100PT. Whenever you login it would just kick you back to the login site. It went on for about a couple hours. Unfortunately after I was able to get back in on my 2nd account, AP told me no go for a 2nd account. :(

Cannot seem to do any transaction... errors out..