I see the point of the article, but the real crime is having just 180000 in the retirement account. I believe someone should have at least that amount in the 401k account by the time they reach 30. Its possible if you max out the account every year from age 22. If you start contributing at age 30, then I think your too late...
The hacker probably had the access to the email account aswell, wouldnt suprise me if this guy was using the same password on the email account as a lot of people do. What IB do provide is one of those electronic password gadgets when doing money transfers, however you need a 100K before they give you one for free.
There's something very strange about this ID theft business. Fastest growing crime yet in this day and age where there is an electronic trail of all that we do it should be the easiest crime to solve. I guess all the players involve simply want to blame the other and be free of the fault (responsibility): its the victims fault (responsibility), no its the brokers fault (responsibility), no its the banks fault (responsibility), no its the FBI's fault (responsibility), no its the email providers fault (responsibility) - meanwhile the thief who's fault (responsibility) it actually is enjoys 180k. This is an easy case to solve if someone simply wants to play connect the dots with the electronic data trail.
I remember reading an article and I think there was a discussion about it on this site where some of these crimes are originating from inside the brokers - people that know how the whole system really works and how the cases really don't get solved. A good professional criminal really understands the whole system and the risks involved, otherwise he wouldn't commit the crime.
Hey this would make a great idea for the next Ocean's 13 film. The plot is to try to empty out a small fraction of GS accounts to the tune of 300 mill. On second thought, no that's too easy and too plausible - not enough drama there.
Why cant any withdrawl require a phone call to the the account holder? I dont know of any way they can hijack your phone line but I may be behind the times. I certainly would not mind them calling me even if it was collect.
IB has it down pat. You cant make a withdrawl without the token. The token in question also has a pin, so even if the person has the token then they have to know the pin as well. However, you can still trade if you have the password which I believe is a flaw. I would like to use the token as well in this instance. I change the IB password every weekend with an 8 digit randomly generated alpha-numeric password and only after the computer has been thoroughly scanned for spyware. Another IB flaw is that your password cant excede 8 digits. From a psychological standpoint, I would feel safer if the password was at least 12 digits. Every other account, I use the max number of digits possible. Im not sure if a password longer then 8 digits would matter, but I would feel a little safer knowing that its longer.
I don't know what JP Morgan is up to, in terms of account security... but even the relatively tiny Oanda has always managed to handle this whole withdrawal business correctly. "Request for Fund Withdrawal Funds may be withdrawn from a Customer's Account at any time, providing that the value of the customer FXTrade account is equal to or greater than the margin requirement. All amounts withdrawn from the FXTrade account will be paid to the customer's account from which the funds were received. OANDA does not process any payments to any third party other than the account holder. Additionally, funds are withdrawn via the same method by which funds were deposited to the FXTrade account. For example, withdrawals for deposits received by check will be made by check, withdrawals for deposits made by wire transfer will be made by wire transfer, and so forth." The bold font above is mine. Of course, it's possible to change your bank, if need be, but special security procedure applies... A very small price to pay (how often do you close bank accounts?) for a significant increase in security. It is also common industry practice either to not allow or to set aside for special (manual) processing any withdrawal request within X days after a change of address or banking info. It's not rocket science on the broker's part, folks... mostly just common sense.
i took a mba class from a pr/marketing private businessman in the houston area, and basically, you would be surprised at how much 'news' is written by pr firms and sent to media outlets as stories, they do very little original research, and sometimes they edit the pieces/story thumbnails and just put this free advertising out. Almost nothing of news is not pr driven, when kuwait was invaded...some wealthy advocates paid these people to tell these sob stories in front of congress about all the atrocities to their families during the invasion, to sway public opinion, and committ money to THEIR CAUSE. Turns out these were basically paid actors with fictional stories, but said the ends justifyed their means even though they never witnessed any said atrocities to their direct family members. I bet somebody with the right agenda is responsible behind the placing of this story in the media. It could be anyone from government agencies trying to increase their budget, to various brokerage houses, to lobbyists for certain clients wantinggovernmental protection to absorb their liability issues, insurance companies, etc. But ordinary people are protected by these sorts of crimes, as they always get their money back, whether these rules are explicitly or implicitly written. getting robbed by gunpoint at an atm has no protection--this "wire fraud crime" has a bunch of built-in account holder recourses associated with it, including legal. as regards to not having more than 180,000 for retirement: i doesn`t really matter whether you have 500,000 or nothing for retirement, as when you get to actual "tangible quality of life care" 500,000 isn`t going to make that much of a difference any way you slice it, as governmental resources just fill the gap of what the retiree doesn`t apply t their own daily care. That`s why anybody that believes we are a soley capitalistic country is mistaken, as illegal aliens get advanced cancer chemo that they can`t afford even with little chance of long-term survival. People on welfare in this country have dvd players and 32 inch tv`s---you actually probably get better healthcare by showing up at emergency centers than going through your insurance company. that`s why when people say we don`t have a national healthcare plan it is usually politically motivated, as most states have free mental and health services which are just as good as your major healthcare provider. that`s why in my opinion you should not be worrying about 180,000, 300,000, 500,000 if you want to have any kind of tangible quality of life difference in your retirement you need to be thinking about at least 5 million. and most americans will never have that kind of retirement savings, and as such, government will step in to fill the gaps for at least a minimal standard of living, quality of life insured. (of course, owning your home outright, pension, retirement age, ss input, debt, region, family wealth, living style, etc.---can make 180,000 go a lot further than certain people`s 800,000)