American Express Home Depot The Home Depot gift cards issued by American express are used fraudulently if you don't use your balance right away. Nationwide

This scam heppened to me TWICE. I got a gift card from American Express for a $500 Home Depot Gift Card. When I went to use it 3 months after I got it, the entire balance had been stolen. I checked with Home Depot and the money was spent at a Home Depot Store not even close to my home. American Express sent me ANOTHER $500 Home Depot Gift Card and this time I used some of it shortly after I got it and had a $272 balance remaining. When I went to make a purchase yesterday, the money AGAIN was all gone. I wasted TWO HOURS in Home Depot while they made calls and we were put on hold. I finally got out of them that there were TWO online purchases made with MY GIFT CARD but they would not confirm where those purchases were sent. Now I have to call the fraud department and waste more of my time.

The point here is that either American Express or Home Depot have a dishonest employee working in the card issuing department who has access to the card numbers and pin numbers. The fraud was committed about 90 days after I first received each card, so I suspect they check on card balances after 3 months and if the cards are not being used regularly they start charging on them. 

When I spoke to Home Depot they had a lousy attitude, telling me the "cards are like CASH" Well they are NOT. If I had CASH in my wallet it would still be there. It is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that no one is capable of stealing balances, and since this has been on the news and posted elsewhere, they should not act as if I should be the loser due to their lack of security.