Former American Express employee under investigation for customers’ data abuse

Authorities are investigating an American Express employee for unauthorized access to cardholder information and potentially abuse for fraud.

Authorities launched a criminal investigation on an American Express employee that is suspected to accessed to cardholder information and potentially abused for fraud.

Exposed information includes full name, physical and/or billing address, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and the credit card number.

The suspect is no longer working for the financial organization.

On September 30th, 2019, the financial institution began sending out data breach notifications to the impacted, the notice informed them that the former employee potentially used the data for fraudulent activities, including identity theft and financial frauds.

“It was brought to our attention that personal information, related to your American Express Card account listed above, may have been wrongfully accessed by one of our employees in an attempt to conduct fraudulent activity, including potentially opening accounts at other financial institutions.” reads the data breach notification. “In response, we immediately launched an investigation and are fully cooperating with law enforcement agencies to further their investigation.“

American Express is offering free credit monitoring services through Experian Identity Works to impacted customers.

The company is also recommending impacted cardholders to monitor their credit report and statements for any fraudulent activity and report any suspicious activity to their bank.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – American Express, cybercrime)

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