Author Topic: Vanguard security code text messages  (Read 8914 times)

Freedom2016

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Vanguard security code text messages
« on: January 07, 2018, 08:42:30 PM »
Three times since Christmas I have gotten text messages from Vanguard with 6 digit security codes that expire within 10 minutes. I didn't initiate any of them. The first time it happened, I changed my account password.

The second and third times I didn't; I have been monitoring the accounts and nothing's amiss. I emailed Vanguard tonight after receiving the third text.

Anyone else ever experience this? Is this pretty clear evidence someone's trying to access my account? Or is it a technical glitch on Vanguard's end?




zinnie

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2018, 09:03:37 PM »
Do you have Mint or anything else that is pinging your account on a regular basis? I get them every time Mint is running in the background somewhere and refreshes. Vanguard does always seem to send like three codes at a time instead of just the one I would need...

If not I'd talk to Vanguard to get their take on it.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2018, 09:04:14 PM »
I got that too. In my case, I believe it was Mint trying to automatically update the account balances. Do you have your Vanguard account included in an aggregator?

ETA: too slow!

tralfamadorian

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2018, 10:28:45 AM »
+1 Mint updates trigger this for my mortgages.

Freedom2016

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2018, 06:59:18 PM »
Oh, interesting. I have a dormant Mint account that I haven't checked in like 2 years -- I use Personal Capital now. I'll double check.

katsiki

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2018, 07:06:38 PM »
Personal Capital does this to me about weekly.  Do you have it linked to PC?

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2018, 07:07:44 PM »
Personal Capital did the same thing on my account.

phil22

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2018, 08:09:19 PM »
mint's been doing this for me and, since they occur and random times of day, this seems like a security problem since i can't tell when it's mint and when it's someone else trying to access my vanguard account.

so i finally pulled the plug and removed Vanguard access from mint, and then changed my vanguard password.  now if i get an unexpected text message from vanguard i know it's someone trying to access my account.

Freedom2016

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Re: Vanguard security code text messages
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2018, 08:38:24 PM »
I have Vanguard linked to PC, yes. So it may be coming from there.

Vanguard wrote me back and said as much (that aggregators are often the cause of these text alerts). They gave me instructions to disable the text alerts, but the next time I logged in the interface forced me to sign back up for the text alerts. <sigh>