Bank of America - is it hacked?

Gary Talda

I tried to download transactions from Bank of America today. Was told I had to re-validate the account. OK I have been doing this for many accounts recently. However, the Bank of America home page REJECTED my User Id/Password (I keep them in a password vault so I know they are correct). When I went to change the password, it prompted me for a credit card number AND MY SSN. Anyone else ever seen anything like this?

Quicken Alyssa

Hello @Gary Talda,

Thank you for posing this question.

I have seen banks request identifiers like what you are describing, but only with Direct Connect accounts. Your Bank of America accounts should be using Express Web Connect+, and I personally have not seen information requests like that with this connection method.

If you were prompted to reauthorize, please follow these steps to do so:

1. Create a backup of your Quicken file first.
2. Deactivate all Merrill Lynch accounts in Quicken.
   1. Select the Tools menu and select Account List....
   2. In the Account List, select the account you want to deactivate, and then click Edit.
   3. In the Account Details window, click the Online Services tab.
   4. Click Deactivate next to the service you want to disable.
   5. Click Yes to the message confirming if you want to disable this service. Note: If you do not receive this message, additional information is available below.
   6. Click OK to the confirmation message.
   7. If you have an investment account that is linked to a cash account, you need to deactivate the online services from the investment account, which will automatically deactivate the linked cash account.
   8. Important: If you are deactivating/reactivating an account to fix an issue, you'll need to deactivate all the accounts with the affected financial institution that you have activated in Quicken (including hidden ones). Once they're all deactivated, then you can follow the steps to reactivate.
3. Check for hidden accounts. If you have any old/hidden accounts connected, disconnect them.
4. Revoke Quicken’s third-party access on the Bank of America website.
5. Reactivate the accounts in Quicken.
   1. Go to Tools > Add Account.
   2. Select the bank for the deactivated account(s). If prompted, select the connection method.
   3. Enter your credentials and click Connect.
   4. When the list of located accounts appears, choose LINK next to each account you want to reactivate.
   5. Click Next, then Done on the last prompt.

If you are still prompted for a credit card number and a social security number when reconnecting the accounts, please reach out to the bank to see if there is a reason they can provide for this.

Let us know how it goes!