"New" fraud concern: retirement accounts

[Exterous]

There is a thread over at Bogleheads about a man who lost his $52,000 IRA to someone who could pass all the 'security information' checks, along with transfer documents notarized in LA and a bank account opened in the southeast in his name.

With all the focus on securing your credit after the Equifax hack I hadn't considered the impact on retirement accounts even though its potentially far worse. While some institutions guarantee your investments with them against fraud if you complete certain steps to qualify there is nothing required by law meaning many don't offer any protection at all beyond cases of their own negligence. There's probably more authority interest due to the notary and bank account involvement but that won't be too helpful if your institution has no guarantee and the thief spends all himself down to $0 before being caught.

With that in mind its probably worth changing security questions that are linked to personal information to a different question or at least to something nonsensical. "Where were you born?" "Business card"

Looks like my institution offers 2FA for computers and voice recognition* for calls so I'm going to enroll in those and take a look at the security questions we have setup.

*The fall back if the voice isn't recognized is still security questions but its an additional level of deterrent and warning.

 

[lxskllr]

My retirement account is a case of MREs, kippered herring, some knives, and some axes.

 

[brianmanahan]

yikes, i hadn't seen that thread, i usually only check the general and help forums over there.

i should go check my providers just to see if i can do 2FA as well.

 

[WilliamM2]

Put a freeze on Chexsystems so no one can open a bank account in your name. I did it weeks ago. Although I'm assuming due to the high volume of requests, I still haven't received my pin.

 

[Exterous]

Here's the link to the thread over there for anyone interested in reading it:

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=228799

 

[Charmonium]

Put a freeze on Chexsystems so no one can open a bank account in your name. I did it weeks ago. Although I'm assuming due to the high volume of requests, I still haven't received my pin.

Thanks. I'd never heard of this.

How exactly does that work? Is that a central database for banks like the credit bureaus so they have to check with chexsystems every time someone tries to open an account?

 

[Charmonium]

There is a thread over at Bogleheads about a man who lost his $52,000 IRA to someone who could pass all the 'security information' checks, along with transfer documents notarized in LA and a bank account opened in the southeast in his name.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[John Connor]

I have 2FA everything that offers it. Nothing is absolutely hack proof, but it's better than nothing.

I got to wonder. Shouldn't an E-mail get sent out when a transaction occurs? This happens with Coinbase.

 

[highland145]

Put a freeze on Chexsystems so no one can open a bank account in your name. I did it weeks ago. Although I'm assuming due to the high volume of requests, I still haven't received my pin.

Thanks. I will look into that for sure.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You know, those "crazy paranoid" people who put all their money under their mattress may not be so crazy after all. It seems our financial system is so retardedly insecure. Between Equifax, and stuff like this and every other similar incident we hear of it seems we can't trust these firms with our money/information. Probably not a bad idea to keep some amount of money as physical cash in a safe place or as some other asset, like land.

Though it's a catch 22, if your house gets broken into or burns down then you'll be hoping you had not done that. Though idealy you'd want to keep the money in a fire safe that is built into the basement floor and in a rather hard to access place.

 

[turtile]

Though it's a catch 22, if your house gets broken into or burns down then you'll be hoping you had not done that. Though idealy you'd want to keep the money in a fire safe that is built into the basement floor and in a rather hard to access place.

It would probably be a lot safer long term to buy bullion gold.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I keep all my money on me at all times. Sure, people think I'm fat..but hey.

 

[highland145]

I keep all my money on me at all times. Sure, people think I'm fat..but hey.

I think you're easy.