Unrequested replacement card sent for "security reasons"

[paul]

I would like to preface this post by saying that I am a very satisfied Platinum cardholder, and have had one of The Card’s for about 12 years with no complaints whatsoever.

However, I just had something very annoying happen today. I had just memorized my current card number when I received a new replacement card in the mail. The letter attached to the card talked about how they were pleased to issue me the new card, blah, blah, blah (the usual marketing stuff). They also included a letter that was very vague but mentioned some stuff about possible fraud, their super-secret means of detecting fraud, and the precautionary issuing of a new card.

I called a customer support representative to get a better explanation of what happened, since I see no unusual activity on The Card, but she was of little help. All she spoke was the vague company line outlined in the enclosed letter.

Has anyone else ever had this happen? I guess the only real inconvenience is re-learning the number and changing it on a few merchants like Amazon.Com.

Paul

[paul]

I would like to preface this post by saying that I am a very satisfied Platinum cardholder, and have had one of The Card’s for about 12 years with no complaints whatsoever.

However, I just had something very annoying happen today. I had just memorized my current card number when I received a new replacement card in the mail. The letter attached to the card talked about how they were pleased to issue me the new card, blah, blah, blah (the usual marketing stuff). They also included a letter that was very vague but mentioned some stuff about possible fraud, their super-secret means of detecting fraud, and the precautionary issuing of a new card.

I called a customer support representative to get a better explanation of what happened, since I see no unusual activity on The Card, but she was of little help. All she spoke was the vague company line outlined in the enclosed letter.

Has anyone else ever had this happen? I guess the only real inconvenience is re-learning the number and changing it on a few merchants like Amazon.Com.

Paul

[dbaker]

I've had a similar experience before. Usually, this is because the FBI or another law enforcement agency reported to American Express that your card number was found when they seized property from suspected credit card criminals.

However, in this day and age, it's possible that this means that a web site was compromoised that had your credit card information on it. The merchant might have reported a list of compromoised cards to AmEx (and Visa/MC) for appropriate action.

Daniel

[dbaker]

I've had a similar experience before. Usually, this is because the FBI or another law enforcement agency reported to American Express that your card number was found when they seized property from suspected credit card criminals.

However, in this day and age, it's possible that this means that a web site was compromoised that had your credit card information on it. The merchant might have reported a list of compromoised cards to AmEx (and Visa/MC) for appropriate action.

Daniel

[tfung]

not only is it annoying when they send you a new card with different numbers and you got to memorize the number... but with bills, etc that have recurring billing, you have to call them all to tell them the number... sometimes I can't remember to do that until they send me a notice saying that they couldn't bill my old credit card... just plain annoying...

[tfung]

not only is it annoying when they send you a new card with different numbers and you got to memorize the number... but with bills, etc that have recurring billing, you have to call them all to tell them the number... sometimes I can't remember to do that until they send me a notice saying that they couldn't bill my old credit card... just plain annoying...