Fraud in Retirement & Brokerage Accounts on the Rise

Retirement and brokerage accounts saw a rise in fraud cases in 2018, according to news reports this week.

According to a recent study by the Greenwich Associates firm Javelin Strategy & Research cited by WealthManagement.com, retirement account fraud made up 9% of non-credit and debit card fraud in 2018, compared to 3% in 2017.

Brokerage accounts scams reportedly rose from 7% to 10% of non-card fraud during the same time, Wealth Management writes, citing the study. Victims reportedly paid $1.7 billion out-of-pocket in 2018 for non-card fraud, which is double the amount they paid the year prior.

Despite financial institutions introducing two-step authentication, non-card fraud cases have still increased, according to the article.

Mobile phone accounts are reportedly used to gain temporary passwords, with the number of victims of such cases doubling to 680,000 last year, according to WealthManagement.com.

The rise in retirement account fraud and brokerage account scams is in part attributable to a reduction in fraud involving credit and debit cards, according to the study.

Card fraud has reportedly gone down, affecting 14.4 million consumers last year, compared to 16.7 million the year prior, thanks to the advent of electronic chip-embedded cards, according to WealthManagement.com.

According to the publication, the decrease in card fraud could mean that fraudsters are looking elsewhere.

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