I had transfered my account to IB from the one I had been primarily trading from for the past eight months(I had always kept a few grand in the IB account just in case). IB was going to serve only as a temporary stop over as I was actually looking to move somewhere else. I had tried to set up the wire transfer instructions a few weeks back in anticipation of the move from IB to another, however it never went through(not the wire transfer, but only the instructions for my bank). In fact, I realized that I wasn't receiving any email from IB at all. Quite stupidly, I procrastinated about calling, but this afternoon as I was preparing the paper work for the new firm, I decided I had better take care of the situation.
So this afternoon, I called and explained the situation and got a reply that I had tried to send a previous wire transfer before, last July. Last July? I was thinking whether I had or not. HMMMMM, "what bank was the instructions to?" "ANZ New Zealand", was the reply. I'm like, "What The Fuck!!!!!! There is no way in hell I would try to wire money to New Zealand.". What is really odd is that I had continued to receive emails for a time over the summer and I think they only stopped about a month ago. I just checked my email and the interactive brokers domain was blocked(maybe it sends emails that are blocked to the spam folder, which I don't check, rather than just deleting them?).
The reason that this thief wasn't successfull is because their wasn't sufficient funds. I had made a trade the day the transfer would go through, otherwise the account didn't typically have a lot of activity. And this was no mistake, the amount was for what the account was worth on that day. I'm wondering how this person could have set up this wire transfer without me knowing it. Conceivably, he could have gone through the process checked my email for the confirmation token and then quickly deleted it with out me knowing it. But wouldn't IB send an email saying the transfer didn't go through? I don't remember one. Anyways, I'm lucky it occured before I transfered my main account.
The IB CS rep was very nonchalant about the whole thing. I called the FBI. They only investigate cases over 100,00k. Can't say I really blame them as it wasn't much money and they weren't successfull in stealing it. At the very least, I figure I would inform the supposed brokerage frim that the wire attempting to go to. It was going through JP Morgan to ANZ New Zealand on behalf of a firm called Biddley Inc, which is supposed to be a brokerage firm. I can't find this firm through searching the net. So, I'm hoping one of our NZ members here has heard of it. I'll send an email to the NZ securities board and see if they know it.
I remember this happened to somebody on this board about a year and a half ago. I wonder how many others had this happen that we don't hear about? Perhaps IB does deserve some of the bashing it gets.
So this afternoon, I called and explained the situation and got a reply that I had tried to send a previous wire transfer before, last July. Last July? I was thinking whether I had or not. HMMMMM, "what bank was the instructions to?" "ANZ New Zealand", was the reply. I'm like, "What The Fuck!!!!!! There is no way in hell I would try to wire money to New Zealand.". What is really odd is that I had continued to receive emails for a time over the summer and I think they only stopped about a month ago. I just checked my email and the interactive brokers domain was blocked(maybe it sends emails that are blocked to the spam folder, which I don't check, rather than just deleting them?).
The reason that this thief wasn't successfull is because their wasn't sufficient funds. I had made a trade the day the transfer would go through, otherwise the account didn't typically have a lot of activity. And this was no mistake, the amount was for what the account was worth on that day. I'm wondering how this person could have set up this wire transfer without me knowing it. Conceivably, he could have gone through the process checked my email for the confirmation token and then quickly deleted it with out me knowing it. But wouldn't IB send an email saying the transfer didn't go through? I don't remember one. Anyways, I'm lucky it occured before I transfered my main account.
The IB CS rep was very nonchalant about the whole thing. I called the FBI. They only investigate cases over 100,00k. Can't say I really blame them as it wasn't much money and they weren't successfull in stealing it. At the very least, I figure I would inform the supposed brokerage frim that the wire attempting to go to. It was going through JP Morgan to ANZ New Zealand on behalf of a firm called Biddley Inc, which is supposed to be a brokerage firm. I can't find this firm through searching the net. So, I'm hoping one of our NZ members here has heard of it. I'll send an email to the NZ securities board and see if they know it.
I remember this happened to somebody on this board about a year and a half ago. I wonder how many others had this happen that we don't hear about? Perhaps IB does deserve some of the bashing it gets.
