NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Amazon has confirmed to Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the state’s former top vaccine expert, that a fraudulent account was set up in her name and is responsible for sending a dog muzzle to her state office.
Fiscus has been the subject of controversy following her termination and her claim that a dog muzzle was sent to her office as she was under scrutiny from lawmakers.
A state investigation then concluded that a second Amazon account, listed in Fiscus’ name, using her credit card number, ultimately was used to send the muzzle.
"You know what your critics have said. And continue to say. You know that they are saying you did this," asked WSMV.
"It's frustrating, I obviously know what I did and did not do," Fiscus said.
Now, WSMV has confirmed that on Thursday Fiscus received an email from Amazon reading in part, “We believe that an unauthorized party has registered an account with your AmEX ending in 2008.”
The state investigation also found the second Amazon account was using the exact same credit card number on Fiscus’ current credit card.
But, according to the Amazon email, the fraudulent account, which sent the muzzle on July 1, 2021, was using an AmEx number 2008.
WSMV has received a screengrab of conversations between Fiscus and an American Express representative that confirmed that 2008 number was associated with her old credit card account that she reported lost last year and was closed in 2020.
Still, Amazon confirms that the old number was used with the fraudulent account to purchase the muzzle in July.
"That was the most surprising and troubling thing about this," said Ted Rossman, an analyst with Creditcards.com.
Rossman said that reoccurring charges can continue on your credit card even if you get a new number.
But Rossman said no one should be able to make a purchase through Amazon using an old number.
"This is an example of, yeah, there have been a lot of data breaches out there," Rossman said.
In a statement to WSMV, Fiscus wrote in part, "... the Tennessee Department of Safety failed to thoroughly investigate this incident. I look forward to understanding the rest of the story, including the sender of the muzzle and the motives behind the State of Tennessee's continued obstruction of our efforts to discover the truth."
