Amalia Speedone wished she never responded to that text message from "Bank of America"... Just a few days earlier, the bank had contacted her about a suspicious charge on her card. She successfully stopped the fraud.

A Phone Call Could Wipe Out Your Investment Gains By Marc Chaikin, founder, Chaikin Analytics Amalia Speedone wished she never responded to that text message from "Bank of America"... Just a few days earlier, the bank had contacted her about a suspicious charge on her card. She successfully stopped the fraud. Now, she figured Bank of America was texting her about a new threat. "They said it's two charges... a total of $3,400... so I panicked," she said earlier this year in an interview with Baltimore's WMAR-2 News. The text told her to reply "No" if she hadn't authorized the payment. Then it instructed her reply "1" to speak to a representative. Someone called her immediately. And everything seemed legitimate. As Speedone explained...   They had my new address, they had my name, but they also were able to confirm the last four digits of my bank number. The person on the phone said Speedone would need to use Zelle to solve the problem. You might be familiar with Zelle. It's a digital-payment service that launched in the U.S. in 2017. Zelle connects directly to your bank account. It allows you to send money almost instantly. Speedone followed the instructions from the person on the phone. She set up a transfer for the amount she believed had been taken from her account. As the person on the phone said, this was part of the claims process. You can probably guess that Speedone was not talking to anyone from Bank of America... Recommended Links: Wall Street Legend Warns: "This Will Happen With or Without You" 50-year Wall Street legend Marc Chaikin has used his award-winning Power Gauge system to track every twist and turn of the market since the 2016 election year. Right now, he's warning that a dramatic signal just flashed that has a 93% historical success rate of predicting a market surge. Here's how you can prepare. Is Gold Headed Above $3,000 per Ounce? Here's How to Play It... With so many strange events happening across the economy (the longest bear market for bonds since the Civil War... unprecedented bank closures... and soaring prices), it's no wonder the richest investors are loading up on gold. But what you might not realize is there's a much better way to profit from rising gold prices – WITHOUT ever touching an ETF, mining stock, or even bullion. Click here for new GOLD recommendation. As she said in her interview...   As soon as I accepted it, they said, 'OK, look back at your balance and tell me what you see.' And I look back on my balance, and the $3,452 was gone. And I said, 'what the ****,' and the phone disconnected. Speedone immediately contacted an actual customer service representative at Bank of America. But they couldn't do anything to help her. That's because she used Zelle... Services like Zelle can send money instantly. But in order to do that, they sacrifice the ability to reverse a transaction. Users are warned to only use the service with family, friends, or other trusted parties. Zelle is one of dozens of new real-time payment services. And it's far from the only one used by scammers... In 2020, Lisa Williams set up an account with Cash App – another popular digital-payment service. It's owned by Block (SQ). Williams is a director at a nonprofit in Detroit. She used a Cash App account to collect donations to buy groceries for local families that were struggling during the pandemic. When she had trouble accessing the money, she used Google to look up the phone number for Cash App's customer service. The number Williams found seemed legitimate. But once again, it turned out to be a scammer posing as a company representative. Over the phone, the scammer got enough info from Williams to drain her Cash App account. Thankfully, it was only $335. Her nonprofit was able to cover the loss in order to buy food for 100 people. It's tough to get solid data about this type of fraud. But the numbers we have show that it's a big problem... Zelle customers disputed more than $206 million worth of transactions as scams in 2023. The company says that less than 0.1% of all transactions on its platform are fraudulent. A recent survey by J.D. Power found that about 3% of Zelle users said they had lost money to a scam. That number was lower than similar services like Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal. The FBI publishes an annual update on cybercrime. Its latest numbers show a record number of complaints by Americans – more than 880,000 in 2023. That's up 10% versus 2022. Those complaints included more than $12.5 billion in losses – a 22% increase from the year before. The FBI numbers include all kinds of Internet-based fraud – not just the kind based on real-time payments. In fact, the biggest losses are cryptocurrency-related investment fraud. The FBI says that losses from crypto fraud rose to more than $3.9 billion. That's up 53% versus 2022. In short, scams are becoming more common – and easier to pull off – as money evolves. If you haven't been the target of a scam (whether a successful or unsuccessful one), you no doubt know somebody who has been. As we head into the holiday season, I urge you to stay vigilant... A simple phone call or text like the one Amalia Speedone received could end up wiping out your accounts.  So take the extra time to make sure you're talking to someone legitimate. The bank is never in a rush like scammers are. And remember, you can always call the bank back using an official number. You worked hard to make money in the markets... Don't let scammers take those gains away. Good investing, Marc Chaikin Market View Major Indexes and Notable Sectors     # Hld:     Bullish     Neutral     Bearish Dow 30 -0.27% 10 11 9 S&P 500 +0.78% 106 267 124 Nasdaq +1.79% 31 46 23 Small Caps +0.48% 602 980 326 Bonds -0.95% Consumer Discretionary +1.77% 15 29 6 — According to the Chaikin Power Bar, Small Cap stocks are somewhat more Bullish than Large Cap stocks. Major indexes are mixed. *  *  *  * Sector Tracker Sector movement over the last 5 days Discretionary +4.6% Communication +1.73% Staples -0.55% Information Technology -0.73% Financial -0.9% Energy -1.98% Real Estate -2.05% Industrials -2.78% Materials -3.07% Health Care -3.12% Utilities -3.49% *  *  *  * Industry Focus Innovative Technology Services 63 31 5 Over the past 6 months, the Innovative Technology subsector (XITK) has outperformed the S&P 500 by +16.41%. Its Power Bar ratio, which measures future potential, is Very Strong, with more Bullish than Bearish stocks. It is currently ranked #5 of 21 subsectors and has moved up 7 slots over the past week. Top Stocks ASAN Asana, Inc. APPN Appian Corporation CALX Calix, Inc. *  *  *  * Top Movers Gainers AVGO +6.63% TSLA +5.96% EQT +5.88% GOOGL +5.52% GOOG +5.46% Losers TPL -6.87% CVS -6.15% UBER -5.82% UNH -5.6% CI -5.57% *  *  *  * Earnings Report Reporting Today Rating Before Open After Close COST JCI AVGO No earnings reporting today. Earnings Surprises ADBE Adobe Inc. Q4 $4.81 Beat by $0.14 OXM Oxford Industries, Inc. Q3 $-0.11 Missed by $-0.20 M Macy's, Inc. Q3 $0.04 Beat by $0.01 *  *  *  * You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to PowerFeed. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from PowerFeed, click here. You're receiving this e-mail at STEVENMAGALLANES520.NIMS@BLOGGER.COM. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, call +1 (877) 697-6783 (U.S.), 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Eastern time or e-mail info@chaikinanalytics.com. 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