Woman, 86, without answers after $50,000 vanished from her accounts and fumes bank was ‘asleep at the switch’

A WOMAN has been left scrambling for answers after $50,000 disappeared from her retirement accounts.

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

Nancy Smith, a retired teacher, speaks to WSB-TV about her experience with FidelityCredit: WSBTV

Investment reports showing Smith’s money was transferred to joint accounts with strangersCredit: WSBTV

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

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

“Somebody was asleep at the switch, somebody was not doing their job, or this would have never happened.”

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

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

Each of the accounts was linked to a different person who Smith didn’t recognize.

“Eleven different transfers had been made by these three bogus people,” Smith said.

Three people sent thousands of dollars in each transfer from Smith’s retirement savings to the joint accounts.

Then, the money was transferred out of the joint accounts to other individual accounts.

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

Smith said she never signed off on the joint accounts or the transfers.

“For them not to even give me a call or require these people to have a signature, I just absolutely cannot believe it,” Smith said.

“But it’s true.”

Smith slammed Fidelity for not helping her get her money back over two months after it was stolen.

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 would like to have said because I couldn’t go to the Methodist church after that,” Smith said.

Fidelity hasn’t returned The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.

FIDELITY UNDER FIRE

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

They added that Fidelity won’t discuss individual cases.

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

“We understand scams can impact individuals and their families and encourage everyone to take steps to protect themselves and their accounts, including monitoring accounts frequently for suspicious activity and contacting financial institutions directly should anything out of the ordinary, including phone calls or texts from unknown parties, occur.”

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