Woman, 86, left with no answers after $50,000 disappeared from her accounts and smoke bank ‘asleep at the counter’

A WOMAN is left searching for answers after $50,000 disappeared from her retirement account.

The 86-year-old retiree has been trying to get her money back from Fidelity Investments for over two months.

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Nancy Smith said she will continue to fight for answers until Fidelity resolves the issue.

“I’m not going to give up and I’ve decided not to die until this is over,” Smith told ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

“Someone was sleeping at the counter, someone wasn’t doing their job, otherwise this would never have happened.”

Smith is a retired teacher and mother of five. She lives in Fayetteville, Georgia, about 25 miles south of Atlanta.

In September, Smith discovered that three new joint accounts had been set up at Fidelity in her name.

Each of the accounts was linked to a different person Smith did not know.

“Eleven different transfers were made by these three bogus individuals,” Smith said.

Three people each transferred thousands of dollars from Smith’s retirement savings into the joint accounts.

The money was then transferred from the joint accounts to other individual accounts.

“Then they would empty their account to God knows where,” Smith said.

Smith said she did not sign the joint accounts or the transfers.

“For them to not even call me or ask these people to sign, I just can’t believe it,” Smith said.

“But it’s true.”

Smith criticized Fidelity for not helping her get her money back more than two months after the theft.

Banking tips to avoid fraud

As scams become more sophisticated through the use of artificial intelligence, it is important that you know how to spot a scam:

• Be skeptical of online offers that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
• Scammers often use tactics to scare you into making quick decisions. Be careful if you are asked to take immediate action and check who contacted you.
• Chase Bank warns customers to “never return unexpected funds without first calling Chase.”
• Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or over the phone as this is likely a romance scam.
• Never give anyone remote access to your device unless you are 100% sure who you are talking to.
• Never let strangers help you at an ATM and always be vigilant when withdrawing money.
• Do not send money or click on any links indicating that you have won a prize.

Source: Chase.com

She said a bank manager even told her over the phone to “lower her expectations.”

“My mother would be ashamed of me if I said what I wanted to say because I couldn’t go to the Methodist church after that,” Smith said.

Fidelity did not respond to US Sun’s request for comment.

Loyalty under attack

Fraud investigations can take weeks, a spokesperson told WSB-TV.

They added that Fidelity would not discuss individual cases.

“To protect our customers’ privacy, we do not discuss individual matters and work directly with our customers to address any questions they may have regarding suspicious activity,” Fidelity said in a statement to WSB-TV.

“We understand that scams can impact individuals and their families and encourage everyone to take steps to protect themselves and their accounts. This includes regularly monitoring accounts for suspicious activity and contacting financial institutions directly if anything unusual happens, including phone calls or text messages from unknown parties.”

Fidelity also came under fire in October after the asset manager confirmed that 77,000 customers’ personal data had been exposed in a data breach.

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