A number of people reported getting their American Express card shut down yesterday. We see these shutdown waves periodically from AmEx, and there’s a chance we’ll continue seeing more reports in the coming days.
MEAB reports that these shutdowns were related to one very specific spend method (which rhymes with news; please don’t name in the comments) which some people use in high volume, and that it’s not related to bonuses or other spend methods. He also notes that those shut down have until the end of the day of shutdown to cash out their points.
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Beware of people trying to gatekeep their secret strategies by posting misinformation.
Yes, it’s [redacted], where you could apply for a “business account” and get approved by literally name dropping one of the private groups in your application (think [redacted] was partly run by churner). Think Miles Earn and Burn, Miles to Memories Diamond group, or the Daily Churn. (Post if you know of more.)
Pepper is the (I think less secretive but also less profitable?) new thing in town, though I’m a bit out of the loop now.
Are there really people doing millions with Pepper?
Because that’s clearly what what happening with [redacted].
The [redacted] that travel bloggers were raving about isn’t the [redacted] these whales got busted for.
This was an invite only (friend of a friend) inner circle of giga whales swiping millions each with [redacted] coding whatever these ppl asked for. Win win, and [redacted] was in on it all the way.
This is a major component of their business model, and in a sense, everything you see when you google [redacted] is just a front for this operation.
Nooooo, there is no way to cash out MILLIONS in MO’s.
Seems that they are getting the money back in their bank account directly from [removed]..
I heard they utilized [redacted] GCP (Business Portal) to code their transactions as wanted and earn 4x or 10x points
Wonder if the Frequent Miler bros got caught up in this. They’re always boasting of their large Amex balances.
I am convinced Greg was a top abuser of this method. Have you seen you fast he burns though MRs?
My guess is that there is a way to “load” your [redacted] account with spend (and I think amex codes as 4x or some multiplier) and then cash out via paypal or some other method. I haven’t messed with [redacted] though so I could be totally off. There doesn’t seem to be any particular useful gift cards on there (maybe MSing Gift of College might have been something, I don’t know) that one could put tons of spend towards.
If I recall correctly, there used to be a way to get your account “upgraded” to another account type (maybe a [redacted] business account?) so the method might only be available through that upgraded account type.
You may be correct based on what was written here: #2007208 .
Is Alex on the right track?
The man tried to warn you https://www.doctorofcredit.com/fluz-app-buy-exact-value-gift-cards-at-a-discount/#comment-1688053
That was almost 1.5 years ago!
lmao I hope you MSers know just how many times you’ve been reported for money laundering. Apps like Fluz, Pepper, Stripe, PayPal, and Square all report stuff like this to FinCEN, not to mention your bank probably does too. Is it really worth it?
What GCs does [redacted] sell that can be turned into cash?
Hey,
Brian could you share what these people did? “[redacted], Pepper, Stripe, PayPal, and Square” what they did, how paypal and square was involved? thanks.
They’re not involved in this specific event but they all operate in a highly regulated space and moving money through any of these types of platforms in high amounts is a huge red flag that will get you reported every time. If you create a business account and generate a bunch of fake spend on your own cards that will get you shut down every time. Amex is one of the most sensitive issuers for this type of activity and will shut you down themself and report you to the financial platforms facilitating this fake activity. So you’re then reported to the Feds by Amex, the platform, and sometimes the banking partner for the platform too. It is so incredibly dumb to do this kind of thing.
Thanks Dave Ramsey.
What a douche! Dave Ramsey that is.
“The floosies were a common denominator and probably came back to bite”
Seriously? What is the point of obscuring it at this point? When it was posted on every travel blog with step by step instructions then it was fine calling it [redacted], but now when shutdowns happen, we are going to obscure it to keep it on the hush hush.
What GCs were people buying on [redacted]? I agree with you that it’s very annoying when people talk in “riddles”!
Just look yourself. Not that hard. Accounts are free.
I’ve had a [redacted] account for years. I was asking
John what GCs that people were buying to do this “scheme” that got them shut down. However, if 
Alex’s theory is correct, there were no GCs purchased at all!
The ‘news’ site has my daily spend limit at $250.000, so theoretically I assume I could do a monthly spend of a cool $7.500.000 (you obv also need the credit limits on your cards).
Not surprised that at these MS levels it got the attention from Amex eventually.
Im leaning towards the theory of Equinox being the cause, my players that sold Equinox credits = shutdown, the ones that didn’t sell = still good.
Chatgpt is saying Newegg.
I am leaning towards [redacted] app, where I believe users can code the transactions any way they want?
That’s not how [redacted] works. It’s an app for buying giftcards so you can save at the point of sale.