No. of Recommendations: 7
nytimes.com - Fidelity investments fraud alert
Her Life Savings Mysteriously Disappeared After a Systems Glitch
Fidelity Investments notified a customer that her phone number and email address had been removed from her profile. When she logged in, her accounts and savings were nowhere to be found.
Fidelity Investments sent messages alerting her that her phone number and email address had been removed from her profile — and to contact Fidelity if she hadn’t done it.
Alarmed, she quickly logged in, “only to find that all of my accounts had disappeared and my balance showed zero dollars.”
It seemed that Fidelity had eliminated all traces of her longstanding financial relationship with it, erasing the tens of thousands of dollars she held in three accounts, including the Roth individual retirement account that her father had set up for her when she was 16 — and where she had made regular contributions ever since. Her online statements and tax documents had also vanished, so she couldn’t immediately find any of her account numbers, she said…
Since her account was originally opened with a tax identification number (she was a permanent resident at the time), a system glitch emerged when she recently opened a custodial Roth I.R.A. for her daughter using her own Social Security number. Even though she said she had used her Social Security number at Fidelity for years, it appears her profile and accounts hadn’t been properly merged and updated. …
The firm told Ms. Gruntmane that her money hadn’t gone anywhere; it just wasn’t visible to her on the mobile app or the website. “There was no warning that I would not be able to access my accounts for five days,” she added. “If I had to use that money, it was completely inaccessible.”
From here on in, she said, she’s going to be sure to keep physical evidence of her accounts and balances in a secure place. Her tale serves as a reminder that we all should adopt that habit. [end quote]
Unlike @intercst’s theft from Vanguard the money wasn’t actually stolen from Fidelity.
This is a reminder to us.
Have more than one account so if one is inaccessible you can get money from other(s).
Save hard copes of account statements for access to account numbers and activity. Don’t give in to the company’s pressure to have online-only reports.
Double-check all your accounts to make sure they have only one I.D. number (Social Security number) and update beneficiaries while you’re at it.
Set up two-factor authentication.
Set up blocks on transfers out of the accounts.
Wendy
