E*Trade, TD Ameritrade Targeted in Brokerage Fraud (Update1)
By Bradley Keoun
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Customer accounts at online brokers including E*Trade Financial Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. have been infiltrated by computer hackers in Eastern Europe and Asia in one of the biggest cases of identity theft to strike the U.S. securities industry.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASD are trying to unravel the fraud, which has cost New York-based E*Trade at least $18 million and caused losses at Ameritrade of Omaha, Nebraska, company officials said. In one ``pump-and-dump'' scheme the SEC uncovered, thieves used customers' money to drive up the prices of little-traded stocks and then sold shares they bought earlier at a profit.
``The perpetrators were more organized, and it was a bigger issue this quarter than it had ever been before,'' E*Trade Chief Operating Officer Jarrett Lilien said in an interview. ``It wasn't just hitting one company, it was hitting everybody.''
Full story:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4OY4cfzvdYY&refer=home
Super bummer.....
Don
By Bradley Keoun
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Customer accounts at online brokers including E*Trade Financial Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. have been infiltrated by computer hackers in Eastern Europe and Asia in one of the biggest cases of identity theft to strike the U.S. securities industry.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASD are trying to unravel the fraud, which has cost New York-based E*Trade at least $18 million and caused losses at Ameritrade of Omaha, Nebraska, company officials said. In one ``pump-and-dump'' scheme the SEC uncovered, thieves used customers' money to drive up the prices of little-traded stocks and then sold shares they bought earlier at a profit.
``The perpetrators were more organized, and it was a bigger issue this quarter than it had ever been before,'' E*Trade Chief Operating Officer Jarrett Lilien said in an interview. ``It wasn't just hitting one company, it was hitting everybody.''
Full story:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4OY4cfzvdYY&refer=home
Super bummer.....
Don
One I can think of is a dead battery when you want to login at 11 pm.