Woman finds mystery name on taxes after $50k vanished - it exposed dark truth (2025)

A SENIOR woman found a stranger's name on her tax forms after losing nearly $50,000 from her Fidelity retirement account.

And while she dealt with her tax headache, a cache of other retirement accounts were being sold on the dark web by thieves.

Nancy Smith, an 86-year-old from Fayetteville, Georgia, had almost $50,000 of her retirement savings vanish after her account with the brokerage firm Fidelity was targeted by scammers.

Three joint accounts were created in Smith's name last September with each account linked to a different person unknown to Smith.

“Eleven different transfers had been made by these three bogus people," Smith told local ABC affiliate WSB at the time.

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

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Fidelity ended up putting the stolen money back into Smith's account after she went public with her story.

But now, Smith is still facing the consequences of being targeted by identity thieves.

The name of the person who stole her retirement savings was listed next to Smith's name on a tax form Fidelity sent her to give to the IRS.

“When you have another person’s name on your tax reporting, that’s really scary,” she told WSB this week.

"It's been so stressful for me."

Fidelity said it closed all accounts that included names other than Smith's and gave the IRS information to ensure she won't face any tax consequences.

While Smith said Fidelity's efforts to remedy the situation were a big relief, she also has lost trust that her money will be safe.

"In a way, I really didn’t quite trust it. Just because it’s there one day does not mean that it will be there the next day,” Smith said of the money.

The U.S. Sun contacted Fidelity for further comment.

Georgia State University professor David Maimon, whose research team monitors identity theft on the dark web, said there has been an uptick in compromised investment accounts.

“Three months ago, we started to see folks getting more and more interested in investment accounts," he said.

"We started to see more compromised investment accounts surfacing to the ecosystem."

Maimon showed WSB retirement accounts from major investment companies that scammers put for sale on the dark web, including one with $359,000 in it.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office wants to "make sure that financial organizations and their instruments have security protocols in place that meet all the federal guidelines."

An investigation into the matter by Raffensperger's office remains open.

Secretary of State Assistant Commissioner of Securities Noula Zaharis expanded on the investigation.

“Under the Securities Act, we do have the ability to go into these brokerage firms and investment firms to do books and records reviews to see, are they complying?" Zaharis said.

Smith wasn't the only Fidelity account holder targeted by fraudsters.

Robin Gunnink of Wisconsin said her 96-year-old mom had a joint account opened in her name last October.

"There was a withdrawal of $20,000. $10,000 was immediately put in another Fidelity account and left the Fidelity platform. She has not gotten it back," Gunnink said.

Mark McConnell of Washington state said he also found someone else's name on his Fidelity trading account last October.

“This person had access to my account for over a month," he said, adding that curiously no money was stolen.

McConnell said he filed three complaints with the Federal Trade Commission.

Fidelity told WSB in December, "We understand scams can impact individuals and their families and encourage everyone to take steps to protect themselves and their accounts."

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The spokesperson urged customers to regularly monitor accounts for suspicious activity.

You're urged to contact your financial institution immediately if you see anything out of the ordinary or get phone calls or texts from unknown parties about your accounts.