I believe IB only sends money if the receiving account is in your name. The reason why the transfer in question did not go through was insufficient funds. But that does not mean that it would have gone through if only there had been enough money in the account. The names would still have had to match. But of course, a thief could have arranged that as well.
IB offers extra security but they might not offer it for all sized accounts. It involves IB sending you a physical device. Then when you want to withdraw money, IB "challenges" you with a number/string (given to you by IB's website) and you have to enter this number/string into your security device and it spits out a response. You have to type that response into the IB website to confirm the wire withdrawal. So someone could still rip you off, but they would have to physically steal your security device from you in order to do so.
The thing about the kind of spyware I was talking about is, it does not matter how secure the connection between your computer and your broker is of how secure your brokers servers are, as long as you enter the password using your keyboard, each keystroke will be intercepted and transmitted to the criminal, no matter if you are typing in a password or just working on a local Word document.
Do you have any idea how big your account would have to be in order to receive this "physical device"?
Does anyone know if the Internet Connection Firewall that is in XP is of any use? Does it help keep hackers out of your computer?
100% right. not only this, but they will send a money only to the bank,from they come from. same for checks, as far as know. but if someone have full access to ALL information-they probably will be able to change address, bank,wiring instructions. sonds like you trade on computer located in internet cafe, full of hackers))))))). this one is good- http://pscode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=8298&lngWId=1 http://www.vbcity.com/pubs/article.asp?alias=iespy
And when TWS starts up and it says something like: "Processing security requests" What in the heck does this mean? Does this mean you have to request extra security like the physical device mentioned above?
i don't know how good it is, but i use Norton Internet Security, it has antivirus and and an internet security program(it has a fireall built into it), it works great.