Investing Blog Roundup: Assets Stolen from IRA – ACATS Transfer Fraud

In a piece for The New York Times last week, Tara Siegel Bernard reported a story of ACATS transfer fraud from a Vanguard IRA. If you aren’t familiar with ACATS fraud, the short summary is that a thief:

1. Learns of a brokerage account you have somewhere (including account number).
2. Fraudulently opens a new brokerage account somewhere else, in your name, with your information.
3. At that second firm, the thief starts an ACATS transfer to have assets transferred directly from your real account to their fraudulent account in your name.
4. The thief then liquidates those assets and moves the money to a bank account that they control.

Because ACATS transfers are automated, the whole thing can occur pretty quickly, once the thief has the information they need.

• Her Stocks Were Quietly Stolen From Her Vanguard IRA from Tara Siegel Bernard (NYT)
• Protect Your Brokerage Accounts From ACATS Transfer Fraud from Harry Sit (This article is about a separate incident from earlier this year. It has good information about preventing such theft.)

Other Recommended Reading

• OpenAI Admits AI Hallucinations are Mathematically Inevitable, Not Just Engineering Flaws from Gyana Swain
• Are We at Bubble Level Valuations? from Ben Carlson
• IRS Just Made QCD Reporting Easier, but Questions Remain from Melanie Waddell
• If You Had Only a Year Left to Live, Would You Still Be a Penny Pincher? from Michelle Singletary (WaPo)
• Why the 4% Rule is More Like the 2% Rule from Ben Carlson
• Managing Concentration Risk from Adam Grossman
• Paper Tax Refund Checks on the Way Out as IRS Shifts to Electronic Payments from Martha Waggoner
• Is a Continuing Care Retirement Community Right for You? from Amy Arnott
• The Benefits of Boredom from Arthur Brooks

Thanks for reading!