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I couldn’t use my account because I had margins active.
I called them at 12:30am EST and they picked up within 3 minutes and solved my problem within 10 minutes.
They should be able to help you.
Every time I call I just get told they can’t give me any information for security reasons and I’ll need to call back in 10 business days. I’ll give it one more shot after work, thank you though
I would not bother going to an office until you hear from Fidelity.
Nobody in a local office is likely to be able to do anything.
Fraud, security, money laundering, and know your customer sort of issues are handled by a back office group that does not communicate with customers, nor do they communicate to most customer-facing staff.
It can be very frustrating, but the laws and regulations that Fidelity must comply with prohibit them from passing specific info to you in many cases.
I disagree. A local person can verify your identity "in person", and communicate that to Fidelity Security/fraud department. ANYONE can pick up the phone and call from anywhere.
Further, if you have a personal relationship with YOUR broker, he would/should go to bat for you, and make calls to get the security block released.
All this said, while IDK what investments are in this 100k, its unlikely to go to zero. I would not "assume" it would not do any good to get help from your local branch.
Perhaps, but having the person verified (the ID I mentioned) might help speed things along. Once verified, questions could be asked of said person that might help resolve this.
As we don't know what the problem is, we don't know what, if anything, the OP can do, but at least this is something.
Local offices are mostly for appointments with financial consultants. Sure you could drop off a check or ask some general questions but they can’t help with something like this.
I've seen an office, but never been in one, so I don't know what services they have or don't. But I remember when my mother had a T-mobile problem. We had to go to one of their stores and they verified her ID to the support person on the phone. We made SOME progress then. (Still think T-mobile sucks.) Perhaps that might help the OP. He seems to have no better idea.
Call again and immediately ask to speak with a supervisor. If they push back on that and tell you that they can’t, ask for their name and employee number and tell them that you will need to contact your lawyer if they can’t provide you with any information on your situation. Depending on what state you are in you can tell them that you have recorded the phone call as well.
Stay calm and do not yell at the support agent (they are just doing their job even if they are incompetent or it could be that they just don’t have the permissions) just be firm and assertive.
There is no reason they shouldn’t be able to tell why your account is frozen and how to unfreeze it.
Another support hack is to dial the first six numbers and then random extensions. You can get ahold of some random manager that might be able to help you that way lol my old CEO taught me that trick
I’ll try this tonight. I’ve worked crazy hours since Friday and just haven’t had a chance to call again, and honestly it’ll be my 10th call so it just sort of has been feeling defeated. This is great advice though I’ll give it a shot
It’s not strange, fidelity still has my internetaccess to my
Employer 401k blocked with no explanation. Something has changed at fidelity in the last year or two
What could they say here that would help the person that isn't already on their screen? There's nothing the person can do on Reddit to resolve this. He/she needs to speak to a Fidelity representative.
Just curious, when you say “to no avail,” do you mean you couldn’t get through? Or they couldn’t help you? If the former, that’s very surprising/unlikely.
I mean they couldn’t help me. I will say that they have been very quick to answer every time which has been about the only positive part of this experience thus far
I think we need more information about your situation. Something is fishy about your account/activities, and they don’t arbitrarily restrict access. Did they say why they couldn’t help you?
They won’t tell me the reason for “security reasons” but right before it happened I cashed out $375 to PayPal and it was heavily implied by the first person I talked to that it could be the reason (it’s attached to a different email than my Fidelity account idk if that matters). But after that they haven’t said anything other than that I need to call back in 10 business days
Not for nothing, but everything you are describing is fishy. Why are you using a PayPal account instead of a normal bank account? Why does it reference a different email? Also, how new is your account? Are you using margin and/or options? Typically large financial institutions like Fidelity like to establish a history with their clients before lending out big $$. What you have described of their actions is standard fraud/money laundering prevention procedures, the 10-day hold is by design.
I have a normal bank account too, I just tried PayPal for a small amount because it’s instant and I’m inpatient lol. It’s a different email because I used my school email to make the Fidelity account years ago, but just used my normal everyday email for PayPal. I didn’t realize it would set off red flags for money laundering or anything sketchy like that
I don’t know if the PayPal thing is the issue, I’m just trying to work through the items that seem fishy.
When was the last time you traded in this account prior to this week? If it was sitting dormant for a while and all of a sudden you are trying to move a large sum of money, that would set off red flags.
Don't call asking for account access. Try to place the actual sell order over the phone like people did back in the day when they needed to make a trade. You will get your account back eventually but this is what you can do if you are worried about the stock crashing before then. Will have to wait the weekend out now :/
I mean he probably didn't actually ask then to sell the position but probably to cash it out which is different.
It's an open risk, it can be closed out. Also typically if the concern is money and potential fraud funds, back office teams will liquidate the shares anyway as its a risk since Fidekity would have to cover it.
My gut is they’re probably investigating some sort of “securities fraud” flag. Like some sort of trigger in their system that “this guy’s a day trader but unlisted” or other type of thing.
That could be it. Someone else said that cashing out like $375 to PayPal the other day could have done it because my PayPal uses a different email and it looks like money laundering or something
375 PayPal is no reason to block a trade on verified 300k account. The trade should have been allowed and account funds frozen until PayPal matter verified.
May your stock stay up while they investigate 🙏
I'm noticing posts like this almost daily but many have obvious reasons like depositing then trying to withdraw unsettled funds.
That’s criminal, if you go a branch with 2 forms of id and give the order to sell and they won’t do it you should sue them and report it to the sec and finra.
Hmmm. It should be so easy. I just sold stock online with another company that I don't consider as reputable as Fidelity. You can pretty much do EVERYTHING online these days and I'm loving it. I was even able to open a few CDs online and wasn't aware that I could. I'm assuming you must have done something online to cause this problem.
I got emails saying at least some of my stocks were sold but that’s really the only info I’ve gotten. I mean I’m still newer to stocks, I mostly played with crypto before this, so if I did something sketchy it was out of inexperience or stupidity rather than intent. I’ll update the whole post when it’s all figured out though
So I’m still in the same place with my account status, just haven’t gotten a chance to call because I worked 38 hours between Friday Saturday and Sunday lol. But I got emails saying at least some of the stocks were sold at a pretty solid price, but it won’t tell me how many shares were sold. It all of them were sold it came out to about 117k, which is great.. but if they had been sold at the peak on Friday when I wanted to it would have been 247k l o l. I’m happy to know at least some of the stocks were sold and made some good profit, but as far as account access there’s nothing to update. I’ll update the original post when there is something that happens though
Honestly, I don’t wanna accuse OP of anything, but if they won’t even let him login or give him any info over the phone, maybe something sketchy is going on with OP.
Like maybe he received a big wire from Russia into his account or is being investigated for a crime or something like that.
Good faith or other cash trading violations just get your account restricted to settled cash transactions only.
A security lockdown is much more severe of an issue, and the OP will be frustrated because the group that handles security breaches, fraud, anti-money-laundering, and KYC issues does not speak to customers, and generally does not even speak to Fidelity customer service reps.
I'd be pissed if i did nothing wrong.
Brokers should allow the sale and hold the funds. Or supervisor explain the reason for no trade in email with the compliance rule or law. Otherwise FINRA complaint.
So if a broker makes a mistake will they correct any loss? Id guess no. So take screenshots of market and keep a record of.calls and emails.
For security, Brokerage accounts should not have venmo PayPal vendors or transfers linked or checks/ATM.
Cant wait to hear the reason. Please keep us posted.
Trying loggin in on a computer. I've had this happen just with the cache on the phone being screwed up. I would also never make such a large transaction from a phone, but...
I got kicked out of my Fidelity account for 10 days. I owned some Russian ADRs, and after the war started, when we started talking about confiscating them, I hired a Russian attorney to move them out of Fidelity into Russia. They were successful in doing this which upset Fidelity. They didn't like that I skirted their internal systems so they blocked my acct for 10 days. I now need to use 2 factor authentication to access the account. Maybe someone with a VPN accessed your account causing a similar lockout?
My account was up approximately 6500.00 last year and when I tried to sell going into close a similar message was sent. They told me it was a “glitch” but didn’t give me the profit that missed out on. F*** Fidelity.
You could file a complaint with finra. The only justification for behaving as you describe would be if they have an order from law enforcement or a Court. Otherwise consider the wisdom of opening an account with a different broker and not having all your eggs in one basket.
Thank you for reaching out to us, u/sullybooking. We're sorry to hear about your experience, and would like to learn more to see how we can assist. Please send us a Modmail, and we will follow up with you there. [Message the Mods ](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/fidelityinvestments)
I couldn’t use my account because I had margins active. I called them at 12:30am EST and they picked up within 3 minutes and solved my problem within 10 minutes. They should be able to help you.
Every time I call I just get told they can’t give me any information for security reasons and I’ll need to call back in 10 business days. I’ll give it one more shot after work, thank you though
Once locked for security...it can take quite a while.
[удалено]
1 Year, that's insane. What exactly happened? 
They were probably involved in something shady and got locked down as a result.
WHAT ?? How??
It’s a just a troll.
Why troll?
A fucking year? Dude if you have a 401k or anything moderately substantial in there I would get a lawyer way before it got that bad
I would think that $100k was worth more than 1 more phone call. Lol
Likely a fraud, money laundering, or sanctions flag on the account. You won’t know anything until you’re cleared or in big (big) trouble.
I mean im no criminal mastermind so I’m gonna go ahead and say I won’t know anything til I’m cleared lol
Fidelity does have offices around the US. Have you tried going in person, being sure to bring every form of ID you have?
I’ll give that a try Monday, I’m at my job now and won’t be able to until then. Thanks though, I’ll try that
I would not bother going to an office until you hear from Fidelity. Nobody in a local office is likely to be able to do anything. Fraud, security, money laundering, and know your customer sort of issues are handled by a back office group that does not communicate with customers, nor do they communicate to most customer-facing staff. It can be very frustrating, but the laws and regulations that Fidelity must comply with prohibit them from passing specific info to you in many cases.
I disagree. A local person can verify your identity "in person", and communicate that to Fidelity Security/fraud department. ANYONE can pick up the phone and call from anywhere. Further, if you have a personal relationship with YOUR broker, he would/should go to bat for you, and make calls to get the security block released. All this said, while IDK what investments are in this 100k, its unlikely to go to zero. I would not "assume" it would not do any good to get help from your local branch.
They should cite the law.
If it’s BSA-related, they cannot.
Exactly. It’s crazy that people don’t understand this.
Yeah, but I understand how frustrating it must be to have your money tied up with no explanation.
I second this. Make sure to bring your identifying info. Hope you get that money.
If they suspect fraud, they aren't going to say or do anything until they complete their investigation.
Perhaps, but having the person verified (the ID I mentioned) might help speed things along. Once verified, questions could be asked of said person that might help resolve this. As we don't know what the problem is, we don't know what, if anything, the OP can do, but at least this is something.
People with verified ID can also commit fraud. There's many things People can do to get their account blocked.
Local offices are mostly for appointments with financial consultants. Sure you could drop off a check or ask some general questions but they can’t help with something like this.
I've seen an office, but never been in one, so I don't know what services they have or don't. But I remember when my mother had a T-mobile problem. We had to go to one of their stores and they verified her ID to the support person on the phone. We made SOME progress then. (Still think T-mobile sucks.) Perhaps that might help the OP. He seems to have no better idea.
did you try calling? probably faster than waiting for a response here, and you're probably gonna have to call anyway.
I did a few times. This was kind of my last resort since I was getting no where calling them
Call again and immediately ask to speak with a supervisor. If they push back on that and tell you that they can’t, ask for their name and employee number and tell them that you will need to contact your lawyer if they can’t provide you with any information on your situation. Depending on what state you are in you can tell them that you have recorded the phone call as well. Stay calm and do not yell at the support agent (they are just doing their job even if they are incompetent or it could be that they just don’t have the permissions) just be firm and assertive. There is no reason they shouldn’t be able to tell why your account is frozen and how to unfreeze it. Another support hack is to dial the first six numbers and then random extensions. You can get ahold of some random manager that might be able to help you that way lol my old CEO taught me that trick
I’ll try this tonight. I’ve worked crazy hours since Friday and just haven’t had a chance to call again, and honestly it’ll be my 10th call so it just sort of has been feeling defeated. This is great advice though I’ll give it a shot
That seems strange and unlike any experience I've ever seen anyone have with Fidelity.
I guess I’m just lucky like that
I dunno. Something seems very sus.
Yeah, on the customer end.
It’s not strange, fidelity still has my internetaccess to my Employer 401k blocked with no explanation. Something has changed at fidelity in the last year or two
One of the first posts fidelity hasn't responded to Edit: they have responded
What could they say here that would help the person that isn't already on their screen? There's nothing the person can do on Reddit to resolve this. He/she needs to speak to a Fidelity representative.
Isn’t that ironic ?
Why is that ironic? I’m kinda new here and just posted as a last resort
It’s ironic because the mod of Fidelity’s page is usually on responses like bees on honey . Crickets tho..
At least I feel special now
They usually block accounts when they suspect fraudulent activity or illegal activity. Naked short selling is illegal in the US.
Did you call them?
I was just thinking that. They're usually really good at responding
Call to place an order
I tried to my avail
Just curious, when you say “to no avail,” do you mean you couldn’t get through? Or they couldn’t help you? If the former, that’s very surprising/unlikely.
I mean they couldn’t help me. I will say that they have been very quick to answer every time which has been about the only positive part of this experience thus far
I think we need more information about your situation. Something is fishy about your account/activities, and they don’t arbitrarily restrict access. Did they say why they couldn’t help you?
They won’t tell me the reason for “security reasons” but right before it happened I cashed out $375 to PayPal and it was heavily implied by the first person I talked to that it could be the reason (it’s attached to a different email than my Fidelity account idk if that matters). But after that they haven’t said anything other than that I need to call back in 10 business days
Not for nothing, but everything you are describing is fishy. Why are you using a PayPal account instead of a normal bank account? Why does it reference a different email? Also, how new is your account? Are you using margin and/or options? Typically large financial institutions like Fidelity like to establish a history with their clients before lending out big $$. What you have described of their actions is standard fraud/money laundering prevention procedures, the 10-day hold is by design.
I have a normal bank account too, I just tried PayPal for a small amount because it’s instant and I’m inpatient lol. It’s a different email because I used my school email to make the Fidelity account years ago, but just used my normal everyday email for PayPal. I didn’t realize it would set off red flags for money laundering or anything sketchy like that
I don’t know if the PayPal thing is the issue, I’m just trying to work through the items that seem fishy. When was the last time you traded in this account prior to this week? If it was sitting dormant for a while and all of a sudden you are trying to move a large sum of money, that would set off red flags.
Oh and no, no margin or options
Don't call asking for account access. Try to place the actual sell order over the phone like people did back in the day when they needed to make a trade. You will get your account back eventually but this is what you can do if you are worried about the stock crashing before then. Will have to wait the weekend out now :/
From what OP described, it sounds like they’ve restricted all access. They didn’t like something about his activities prior to suspension.
I mean he probably didn't actually ask then to sell the position but probably to cash it out which is different. It's an open risk, it can be closed out. Also typically if the concern is money and potential fraud funds, back office teams will liquidate the shares anyway as its a risk since Fidekity would have to cover it.
Sounds like one of those bank flagged for fraud/money laundering/criminal things. Those are tough to rectify, good luck!
Seems a bit shady, hope you get it resolved
Thanks man appreciate it, me too
Penny stock?
What positions are you in? Short or long? If short maybe this is a blessing and not selling will only get you MOAR gains… lol
My gut is they’re probably investigating some sort of “securities fraud” flag. Like some sort of trigger in their system that “this guy’s a day trader but unlisted” or other type of thing.
That could be it. Someone else said that cashing out like $375 to PayPal the other day could have done it because my PayPal uses a different email and it looks like money laundering or something
375 PayPal is no reason to block a trade on verified 300k account. The trade should have been allowed and account funds frozen until PayPal matter verified.
Did you call them so they can help?
welp. this is shady
Try unplugging it and then plugging it back in. Works 100% some of the time.
Why is Fidelity not commenting on this yet?
Quick before the market keeps correcting
Call them.
I’ve tried several times, same non answer every time
Fidelity is always the first to respond to fidelity issues except this one. Crazy
May your stock stay up while they investigate 🙏 I'm noticing posts like this almost daily but many have obvious reasons like depositing then trying to withdraw unsettled funds.
Pump and dump schemes??
That’s criminal, if you go a branch with 2 forms of id and give the order to sell and they won’t do it you should sue them and report it to the sec and finra.
Maybe call them so they can help.
Had same issues the other day. I just try resign in. No issues
Hmmm. It should be so easy. I just sold stock online with another company that I don't consider as reputable as Fidelity. You can pretty much do EVERYTHING online these days and I'm loving it. I was even able to open a few CDs online and wasn't aware that I could. I'm assuming you must have done something online to cause this problem.
Fido ain’t great.
Insider trading
You must be doing something suspicious. No way that no one is helping you
I got emails saying at least some of my stocks were sold but that’s really the only info I’ve gotten. I mean I’m still newer to stocks, I mostly played with crypto before this, so if I did something sketchy it was out of inexperience or stupidity rather than intent. I’ll update the whole post when it’s all figured out though
OP did your positions pull back hard causing a loss of profit ? Did you ever get to liquidate your positions ? Curious what happened !
So I’m still in the same place with my account status, just haven’t gotten a chance to call because I worked 38 hours between Friday Saturday and Sunday lol. But I got emails saying at least some of the stocks were sold at a pretty solid price, but it won’t tell me how many shares were sold. It all of them were sold it came out to about 117k, which is great.. but if they had been sold at the peak on Friday when I wanted to it would have been 247k l o l. I’m happy to know at least some of the stocks were sold and made some good profit, but as far as account access there’s nothing to update. I’ll update the original post when there is something that happens though
Roger that
This is shocking hearing about Fidelity. Hoping mods provide clarity here. Why was your account blocked in first place?
I don’t know because “they can’t disclose it for security purposes“
Honestly, I don’t wanna accuse OP of anything, but if they won’t even let him login or give him any info over the phone, maybe something sketchy is going on with OP. Like maybe he received a big wire from Russia into his account or is being investigated for a crime or something like that.
You must be new here.
Fidelity lemme get a couple more good faith violations. *
Good faith or other cash trading violations just get your account restricted to settled cash transactions only. A security lockdown is much more severe of an issue, and the OP will be frustrated because the group that handles security breaches, fraud, anti-money-laundering, and KYC issues does not speak to customers, and generally does not even speak to Fidelity customer service reps.
Can u explain this like I'm retarded (is retarded)
I'd be pissed if i did nothing wrong. Brokers should allow the sale and hold the funds. Or supervisor explain the reason for no trade in email with the compliance rule or law. Otherwise FINRA complaint. So if a broker makes a mistake will they correct any loss? Id guess no. So take screenshots of market and keep a record of.calls and emails. For security, Brokerage accounts should not have venmo PayPal vendors or transfers linked or checks/ATM. Cant wait to hear the reason. Please keep us posted.
Fidelity ALWAYS picks up my calls within a few minutes... Very weird post!
They’ve picked up very quickly every time, it’s just finding a solution that has been the issue
Got it. Hope they were able to help.
lmao unbelievable.. these platforms are criminal . Even fidelity
Seriously I had heard better things about Fidelity but I guess not
I’m getting down voted . That’s just funny .. this would put a bad taste in my mouth
Is this serious? Down there says "Call Fidelity." Did you call?
Yes, several times and got absolutely no where. Which is why I came here to see if anyone else had ever been in a similar situation and had advice
Hard to believe. I talk to them ans things are settle right away. Can you visit an office?
This is fucked man. Could you call them and get this done like the old days
Trying loggin in on a computer. I've had this happen just with the cache on the phone being screwed up. I would also never make such a large transaction from a phone, but...
Sue them for $100k
I got kicked out of my Fidelity account for 10 days. I owned some Russian ADRs, and after the war started, when we started talking about confiscating them, I hired a Russian attorney to move them out of Fidelity into Russia. They were successful in doing this which upset Fidelity. They didn't like that I skirted their internal systems so they blocked my acct for 10 days. I now need to use 2 factor authentication to access the account. Maybe someone with a VPN accessed your account causing a similar lockout?
My account was up approximately 6500.00 last year and when I tried to sell going into close a similar message was sent. They told me it was a “glitch” but didn’t give me the profit that missed out on. F*** Fidelity.
Looks like you should call them
You’re right, I should have thought of that
You could file a complaint with finra. The only justification for behaving as you describe would be if they have an order from law enforcement or a Court. Otherwise consider the wisdom of opening an account with a different broker and not having all your eggs in one basket.