I just tried to transfer all of the funds ($50K) from my E-trade Complete Savings account to another bank. Before the transfer could go through, however, I had to answer several questions to verify my identity. To my dismay, I knew the answer to none of the questions!

The first question asked me to identify the address of someone whose name was similar to my sister's, but combined her middle initial with our last name. Now, I haven't been in touch with my sister in years, so I have no idea where she lives, but more importantly, I never told E-trade anything about my sister, so god knows where they got that information. I can only assume it came from the equivalent of an internet search.

The second question was "Which of the following persons have you been identified with, currently or in the past?" It was followed by a list of names all completely unfamiliar to me.

The third question asked me how old my mother was. Again, I never told E-trade anything about my mother, so the stupidity involved in this sort of 'verification' is simply breathtaking.

After my failing this insane 'verification' process, the transfer was denied and I was informed that I would have limited access to my account until I was verified, and that I should call E-trade immediately. While I was on hold, I logged back in, tried another transfer, and this time was able to pass their asinine verification test--although the first question, again, pertained to someone with the same last name as me but otherwise completely unknown to me. I should be glad my name isn't Smith.

I've seen some online banks do some stupid things, but this one takes the cake. I will never use E-trade again.

Thanks for the warning. I was about to transfer $73K to E-Trade, but after reading your post I think I will look elsewhere. Again thanks for the post!!

Grantspy said:To my dismay, I knew the answer to none of the questions! Really demoralizing, isnt it?

I got asked my parent's birth month once, and I almost choked. I told the CSR I would feel like an ass if I got it wrong, and she chuckled and offered encouragement while waiting for the computer's response (I felt like I was on a game show).

But Etrade is far from the only biz using public databases as a means for confirming identities - hey, if you dont even know the answers, you can feel pretty secure that no one else will either (although I have found that 'none of the above' is the right answer alot of times).....

OP you were likely asked questions off of your LexisNexis file

Everyone should get this report its great fun for 8$

http://www.lexisnexis.com/terms/privacy/data/obtain.asp

If there are errors on your report those errors, it is nearly impossible to have those errors corrected by LN as they simply refuse

P.S. I have frozen my LN report, they allow this for ID theft victims

Excellent point. Is there some reason why LN isn't subject to the same FCRA requirements as EQ/TU/EX? Does CN47 have any experience here?

LN is not considered a CRA, so there is no FCRA consumer protection

As there are 4 biggies you need to include Innovis in your EQ.TU.EX list

kenblakely said:Excellent point. Is there some reason why LN isn't subject to the same FCRA requirements as EQ/TU/EX? Does CN47 have any experience here?

Questions like that would seem to make sense in the account setup and verification process.

To authorize a transaction on an existing account, if that information was NOT used during previous account setup, would seem to be silly.

ranchopedro said:OP you were likely asked questions off of your LexisNexis file

Everyone should get this report its great fun for 8$

http://www.lexisnexis.com/terms/privacy/data/obtain.asp

If there are errors on your report those errors, it is nearly impossible to have those errors corrected by LN as they simply refuse

P.S. I have frozen my LN report, they allow this for ID theft victims

I always joke that computers know more about us than we do about ourselves and this helps to prove it.

One of those LN dialogs online, to get a credit report or apply for a card or something, a year or two ago, asked me what color a car was I owned in the past. I wonder what color-blind people do when they get that kind of question. Or maybe LN knows that too.

I also wonder what people do in the witness protection program. Do they have to be careful to answer all the questions relative to their assumed ID, and not slip up and give the real answers?

I also wonder if LN ever uses the answers to add to their database. For example, if they're 75% sure you lived at a certain address in the past, and you select that address as the one you lived at, do they change their rating to 95% sure? What if you're trying to get a particular address off your credit reports, because it's causing ID theft or other such problems? Do you have to lie to LN, that you never lived there, to decrease their confidence level of their data, so you can get rid of it?

I for one am glad that E*Trade makes it kind of difficult to transfer funds out of your account. Do you want crooks to be able to easily steal your money no questions asked if they somehow get into your account ?

Also, with E*Trade you can request a SecureID token, which I have, and you have to enter the number it is flashing as part of your password to get in. I've had that for over a year, and they've never asked me any questions, even when transferring large sums of money out of the account, so maybe they figure if you have the SecureID token, they are pretty sure that you are really you.

E*Trade has one of the best guarantees also about returning any funds that are removed from your account by fraud. So it makes sense they want to prevent the fraud since they would be the ones paying for any losses.

So if you step back and look at the big picture, maybe you'd be thankful instead of complaining (E*Trade is not responsible for any problems in your LN report, by the way).