Fidelity Security -- the outcome
Hi kids!
Not sure why, but the other thread got closed. Some of you had asked me to share the outcome of the blocked account issue for which Fidelity does not provide 24x7x365 support.
First, once again, they forced me to update the password on my wife's account. I've already provided sufficient evidence to illustrate that this is no longer considered to be a wise security practice. So I strung up a bunch of curse words and added some special symbols to create a password unique only to my wife's Fidelity account. (I'm kidding.) So the account is no longer blocked. For the record, this could not be have been done before they unblocked (it was blocked - not locked) the account.
Next, they could provide no clear reason for the blockage. In other words, they don't know why they blocked us out of our account. Pretty weak, I'd say. One guy earlier this morning (who could not help us because we called before the "back office" was open) said it appeared to be related to some money movement and trades. The last money movement was on 9/3/24. They locked the account on 9/27/24. That's a 24-day response time. Again, not only scary, but extremely weak security protocol.
The "back office" guy mentioned that my managing my wife's account might have been what triggered the block. I asked, "If I'm logging into her account with her account number and password, how would your systems know if was me and not her?" Crickets.
And I've been logging into that account as her for over 12 years. Yeah. Great response time to catch on to that anomaly.
So, there. You're updated. Blocked from our money for no reason and not provided with support to resolve the issue until a regular business day. Yay! I got to worry about a LOT of money not being visible on my radar for a whole weekend.
So, I'll sit back now and allow those who will put words into my mouth and assume I am idiot spew their vitriol. As for me, I will continue using Fidelity (it's a lot of work to move) but, as I said before, I would not recommend them to family or friends going forward.
Spew away!
|