American Express Card Numbers and Personal Information Exposed for Mexican Cardholders
American Express customers should be on alert. A hacker has posted data of 10,000 American Express credit card holders on a hacker forum for free. In the same forum post, the actor claims to sell even more data of banking customers of American Express, Santander, and Banamex. This seems to affect only American Express customers in Mexico, based on the data revealed so far by Bank Security.
The leaked sample data exposes full American Express credit card numbers and personal information such as name, address, phone numbers, date of birth, gender, and more. But expiration dates and passwords don’t seem to be part of the leak.
It seems the actor behind the forum post intends to expose this data mainly for marketing spam purposes. “I do not sell private data such as password, card information, id number. With the data I sell or share, you are only exposed to spam or marketing :),” stated the seller in the same forum thread, BleepingComputer reports.
In comments made to BleepingComputer, American Express neither denied nor admitted that they had suffered a data breach, but said they “are aware of the report and are closely monitoring the situation.” American Express also added that Card Members are not liable for any fraudulent charges on their accounts. “American Express has sophisticated monitoring systems and internal safeguards in place to help detect fraudulent and suspect activity. If we see there is unusual activity which may be fraud, we will take protective actions,” American Express told BleepingComputer in a statement.
A Threat Actor shared for free over 10,000 American Express México 🇲🇽 (@amex_express_mx) customer Data and claimed to also have data from @SantanderMx, @Citibanamex and more. pic.twitter.com/3rmoRrWyR3
— Bank Security (@Bank_Security) January 3, 2021
It’s still a good idea to keep an eye on your statements, and look for any charges that you might not recognize. You should do this all the time, monthly or every few months, but even more so when news like this comes out. As mentioned above, the leaked data only affects American Express customers in Mexico, but it’s always a good idea to be proactive and take precautions.
