Your Brokers are Brokering Your Identity!

My co-author sent me an e-mail early today asking "have you blogged yet?"

Oops! I've been remiss!

So what to blog?

No worries mate! Let's quick see what incompetent boobs have put thousands (maybe millions) at risk this week. I can count on many, MANY inept data guardians to have screwed up.

Ahha! Here is a good one.

The headline "Online Brokerage Account Scams Worry SEC "

• "WASHINGTON ( Reuters) - High-tech crooks are hijacking online brokerage accounts using spyware and operating from remote locations, sometimes in Eastern Europe, U.S. market regulators said on Friday.
  The computer "incursions'' are a growing problem, said Walter Ricciardi, deputy enforcement director at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission."

Now this should NOT be happening! Over 25% of US stock trade (retail) in on line. There are, accrding to the news, somewhere aroundn 10 million on line accounts. So we are talking about a lot of investors and a Schmidt-load of money that is sitting in cyberspace waiting to earn (or lose) value, return on investment, pay for college, or for those "golden years".

So how does this scam work? The article goes on to 'splain.

• "Crooks will load a victim's computer or a public PC with a spy program to monitor a user's activities and capture vital information, such as account numbers and passwords. The program then e-mails the stolen information back to the thief, who can use it to open victim accounts. Once inside, the thief may sell off an account's portfolio and take the proceeds. Or electronically hijacked accounts may be used for ``pump-and-dump'' schemes to manipulate stock prices for profit."

Public computers in Internet cafes and hotel rooms are particularily nasty entro points for the gangstas who are often in Eastern Europe (is there actually still such a place?), Russia, and other far-flung locations. The article went on say that American banks are working on online banking security technologies because "identity theft via online banking is a fast-growing crime".

No kidding! And yet, every time I go to my bank they say "are you using our on-line banking services"?

No I am NOT because you fools just want to cut costs and bank tellers but you have not done diddly to secure and armor those on-line sites!

Be careful when you on line bank. VERY careful!