In both cases, in addition to my normal passwords, I have an additional password. No one can get to my accounts without the verbal password. Not even me.

I have two-factor authentication on every financial site: banks, brokerages, govt bonds, etc. So that’s a start. I get a text message every time an account is accessed. Takes an extra 10 seconds, and in my view, worth it.

At my brokerage, I also have a maximum transfer (out) allowed of $25k per transaction, limited to 2 transactions per day. Once (at a house closing) this turned out to be an issue, but a visit to the local office where they know me made that disappear in about 5 minutes - for that single transaction only, which was in the high 6-figures.

Intercst, on the other Fool board, detailed a situation where (one of?) his accounts was waylaid by someone opening an account in his name in another city, then transferring the bulk into the new location. Luckily caught in time and reversed. $900,000 oopsie! For those interested: discussion.fool.com - Big problem with vanguard

Good morning, apparently several of you are missing the point. In the cases I'm aware of the account wasn't hacked a vulnerable person was talked out of the money and it was sent, voluntarily. HUGE difference.

Yes, that was my SIL’s experience. I should add a couple of corrections. I said “Tens of thousands”. It wasn’t, it was $13,000. And the “on line flirtation” wasn’t conducted by email, it was by message or text or whatever - much more immediate, I guess. (Mrs. Goofy corrected me this morning.)

Now the one-off frauds, conducted by individuals are one thing, but there are fraud farms doing this sort of thing, an I don’t understand why the Powers That Be can’t identify the IP addresses of these places and simply cut them off, harass or other make make useless the whole batch of similar ones that are doing this evil? I admit I’m naive in the underlying mechanics of the web, but somebody, somewhere has to be able to put some sand in the gears, no? Why wouldn’t this be a good place to start?