At Camp FI last week, I was chatting with Julie and Patrick and they passed along an online personal finance security tip that I hadnu2019t heard before:
You can lock down your brokerage account to prevent scammers from transferring (stealing) your entire account.
Iu2019ve learned that Clark Howard published an article last month called u201cWhy You Need to Lock Your Brokerage Account Today.u201d He describes:
u201cACATS (sometimes just called ACAT) stands for Automated Customer Account Transfer Service. Itu2019s an electronic system used in the brokerage industry that lets you move your money u2014 your investments, your retirement savings u2014 from one brokerage firm to another.
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The problem? ACATS has such poor security that criminals are exploiting it to loot your account.
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Once that money is stolen, it is unbelievably difficult, if not impossible, to get your own money back.
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Iu2019m going to tell you in the simplest terms how this works, and then Iu2019m going to tell you the must-do step you need to take right now to protect yourself.u201d
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