Breaches into Financial Accounts - Has it happened to you?

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
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RetiredAL
Posts: 3513
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:09 am
Location: SF Bay Area

Breaches into Financial Accounts - Has it happened to you?

Post by RetiredAL »

Breaches into Financial Accounts - Has it happened to you?

I am curious as to how often this happens.

Who out there in Boglehead Land has had an ACTUAL BREACH to their personal or an immediate family member's Core Financial Accounts at a Bank, Brokerage, or Credit Union.

By breach, I mean having Logon Credentials Stolen and Used, or via Telephone Access to a Rep or a Walk-in to a Branch, where accounts/profiles were created/changed or actual money was moved or attempted to be moved. If yes, how did you find out about it?

Please do not include Accounting/Account Errors, Credit/Debit Card Transaction Fraud, Stolen/Forged Checks, Taxes, or the WFB fiasco, as we all know (or should know) that these items have known risks with them, and there are plenty of posts about them already.

What I'm trying to establish is a feel from a Boglehead perspective as to the ACTUAL RISK of this happening and their EXPERIENCES relating to intrusions that did occur into their Core Financial Services. A "Core Breach Event" could create a serious monetary issue to the Account Owner(s), and I for one worry about its potential.

--RetiredAl--
littlebird
Posts: 1860
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:05 pm
Location: Valley of the Sun, AZ

Re: Breaches into Financial Accounts - Has it happened to you?

Post by littlebird »

Bumping for more visibility.
Topic Author
RetiredAL
Posts: 3513
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:09 am
Location: SF Bay Area

Re: Breaches into Financial Accounts - Has it happened to you?

Post by RetiredAL »

Since 4 days and near 500 reads have passed without a single "yes", I think I can conclude that actual intrusions into people's account's are a rare a occurrence.

Thanks to all who read.

And special thanks to Littlebird for the bump on Saturday. That was "Dad's" day to me, so I didn't even check BH. Every other Saturday, I spend the day with my father who is 90 miles away and who will be turning 93 in a couple of months.

I had asked because their was and incident within my family years ago, but there did not seem to be any actual intrusions listed here, just a handful of scares that that may have been taken out of context. That said, PRUDENCE IS IMPORTANT to maintain.

About 15 years ago, my father's Schwab Account was compromised via online. The perpetrator changed his Password, Snail Address, E-mail Address, Phone Contact, created a new money transfer link outside of Schwab, and initiated a $ move to this new transfer point for $1000. Dad was notified that day via previous E-mail address and a Snail mail 2 days later of the profile changes and pending transfer. Schwab automatically delayed the transfer for 5 days due to their policy of not allowing transfers after significant profile actions, thus, no actual loss occurred. How the ID was compromised was never determined. Full scans of his Windows Computer using multiple tools found nothing, and no phishing e-mail had been received. We suspected the PC at his church, as he managed Church Accounts at Schwab linked to his logon, and he had recently used the Church PC to transfer Church money, but it was reported that that PC also had nothing found on it. No further events occurred either at Schwab or with any of his accounts at any other institutions, nor the Church's. I think this is a noteworthy item: Schwab's Security Policies did effectively notify that there were changes and also did not allow any transfers to happen.
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