I agree that one should take the necessary precautions to protect themselves. This was actually a good learning experience. I have accounts with mbtrading and IB. They all know to send money to only 1 bank. Etrade, thankfully, was my smallest account.
Not directly related to E-trade, but of general interest: FSA warns of criminal gangs inside City banks The UK's Financial Services Authority has repeated a warning that organised gangs of criminals are infiltrating British banks in order to carry out large-scale frauds. The watchdog warned banks in November last year that criminals were applying for jobs in financial services firms in order to gain access to sensitive customer data. The FSA said there was evidence that organised crime groups deliberately placed agents inside banks to commit crime, particularly identity theft, and urged firms to carefully screen new staff. Speaking at a financial crime conference in London yesterday, FSA chairman Callum McCarthy said there is increasing evidence that criminals are still getting jobs in banks in order to learn how to circumvent systems and controls to commit fraud. He said much financial crime was linked to drugs and people trafficking and terrorist funding. McCarthy said that data protection laws made it harder to investigate staff frauds as it made data sharing unnecessarily difficult. He said the FSA will be involved in seeking a resolution to this. Earlier this year a cyber crime gang tried to steal £220m from the London offices of the Japanese banking group Sumitomo Mitsui by hacking into the bank's computer system. Police from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) foiled the attempt but it is still not clear how that gang managed to gain access to the bank. http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=14529
Any company that honors an ACH from Russia is freakin nuts. It speaks to a total lack of controls and minimal securty. The 'buyer beware' crap that Etrade resorts to tells me they are not an organization to be trusted with money. The people who support Etrade in this are effectively asking everyone to do what I already do. My main investment accounts HAVE NO INTERNET access at all. All other accounts have a minimal amount of working capital. That's what 'buyer beware' and the 'so sue me' attitude of etrade and their supporter on ET will lead to. Etrade's position is a short term approach. What will Etrade do when most people conclude what I have concluded- that the internet cannot be trusted with serious amounts of money?
Its Etrade's responsibility (and the Feds say it will be by the end of 2006) to make sure that keyloggers cannot compromise user accounts. Please don't give me any libertarian crap about buyer beware. That's just an excuse to justify second rate corporate IT. Any website like a bank or brokerage account must use 2 phase authentication to prevent fraud by phishing or keyloggers. The company must make a clear statement that any funds fraudulently removed will be returned to the customer's acccount, just like a bank. Any company that falls short of this is effectively saying "Please don't entrust us with any real money." Any brokerage that falls back on those bogus arbitration clauses is saying "Please dont expect anything much from us. This is really just a play gambling site." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/1...nking_security/
First, I would like to say I'm sorry for all the struggles everyone is having with E*Trade. I never liked them, never will. Since there has already been alot of advice, i would just like to emphasize the idea of gathering your experiences and getting them out to the press...it's the only way to take it to them. Choad, I cannot find it anywhere on IB's site...are these tokens available for account holder's under 100K? and if so, do you know for how much? Thanks
This tells about it. Free for account sizes over $100K. I don't see where it says anything about if you can buy it if your account is smaller. Might want to ask them if you could get one anyway. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/secureTransactionProgram.php The IB Identity Token is a small device (small enough to fit on your keychain) that generates unique, secure passwords for each IB logon for secure transactions. The passwords generated by the token can only be used once and therefore they are no good to snoops and hackers. Even if someone were to steal your IB user name and your regular password, they could not withdraw funds from your account or change your confidential information without also having physical possession of your IB Identity Token. In addition the token is locked by a Personal Identification Number (or PIN) so that only you will be able
Actually the news up here in NY did a story about a guy who lost 10 K to hackers... After the story etrade said they would give him his money back.. Cal your local media... Nick
I think you are correct.... As I said in my other post... There was a story done on a guy who lost 10,000 dollars. I remember him saying that he did have trouble logging on to his account once.. That may have been the phishing website. He couldn't log in because it wasn't really etrade's website... You have to be very careful with these emails... I always go to the site of my bank to log on, never on the emails I get... And I have even been phished for my bank and paypal... Careful ... Nick
definitely get TV involved... again, I just saw a news broadcast here in NY about a guy who lost 10k... He got it back from etrade after the the news got involved... Can't remember the news team... Anyone see the program...? Nick
Yes they could sue but I don't think they could win. Anybody can sue for anything really.... Take into account the fact that they never disclosed information about the transfer that may help him recover his money. Instead, they froze the account and said sorry buddy, money is gone, Some russian guy took it. Take our word for it and go away. They should supply account numbers and bank names of the destination account.. Why not disclose this information ? Are they protecting the privacy of the crook or do they have something to hide. NK