I've had 4 accounts for longer term investing (2 IRA's, 2 regular brokerage) with E*Trade for over 5 years. Never a problem. I certainly don't use them for my short term/daytrading. The couple incidents posted here on ET about problems with money being wired out should be considered but there are ways to protect yourself and your account. E*Trade the RSA Security key that changes its code every 60 seconds. There are lots of people using the internet who are susceptible to phishing emails, have no firewall and other weaknesses that allow hackers and identity thieves to compromise their ID, passwords, banking account numbers, etc. I'd bet $$$ that it is these people who become the victims of account fraud.
If the investor's want a per-trade brokerage firm, then Amerirtrade has different conditional orders/trade triggers, free wire-in/out, check writing, direct routing options for its Apex clients. However, you have to call them to enforce a lower commission than what you might get in Fidelity or so.
As I alluded to earlier many online investors don't take the necessary precautions ... link below is from SEC http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-158.htm
I would llike to tell you I was one of those who had money stolen illegally from me. I have a cse(computer science engineering) minor from an Ivy school and took all the necessary precautions that was taught to me. I have adaware, norton antivirus and a firewall. I am aware of what a phisihing email is and know that I did not repsond to one. Like you, I also had a great expericne for 3 + years with Etrade. Since from your post, you seem to place the blame on the customer and not the company. I hope the same thing happens to you. Karma will bite you in the butt. Either way, i could care less and hope others take warnings more seriously. Their are others who have lost a lot more than me; 100k+. Also, your post tells us a lot about your character. You are on ignore.