Critical American Express Card Stolen By Employee, Little Info Available

American Express (AXP) has informed a number of its card members that their account numbers, names, the date on which their cards became effective, and the expiration dates have been stolen. The firm also said that the employee who took the data has been arrested and that an investigation is ongoing. American Express stated that social security numbers and national identification numbers were not taken.

The Ponemon Institute recently named American Express “Most Trusted Company for Privacy” for the fifth consecutive year. American Express also ranked highest in customer satisfaction among credit card companies in a recent JD Power survey.

Whan asked how many card members were effected, a American Express spokesman said that it was a relatively small percentage of the firm’s customer base. The company had approximately 88 million cardholders worldwide at the end of 2009.  That makes the term “relatively small” mean very little.

Among the things that American Express did not disclose in it letter to card members is when the data was stolen. The company also did not say whether all of the data was retrieved or fell into the hands of third parties. There is no mention in the letter of whether any of the card members whose data was taken have had charges on their cards.

In other words, American Express has said as little about the incident as possible.

Douglas A. McIntyre