Financial Hackers Becoming Growing Problem

According to a report from FOX Business Network's Liz MacDonald, there is a growing problem for brokerage agencies and banks industry wide with foreign cyber hacking in the U.S., citing sources inside the agencies.

The sources said that there have been discoveries of cyber hacking crime rings in Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and Thailand, that are accessing personal financial information through a variety of means then selling it to criminal organizations.

Brokerage firms and banks that have been reportedly attacked on previous occasions according to MacDonald include Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW), E-trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC), TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) and Thompson Financial.

The criminals are accessing personal accounts by placing "trojan horse" software on public computers in places such as libraries, hotels and airports that copy and records the account log-in information for the thieves.

Account information has also been swiped by using job offers on Web sites like Craigslist, playing on the desperation of unemployed Americans seeking work.

Once the information is obtained by the criminals, it is then emailed to crime rings where accounts are liquidated, and the stolen money is then wired to drop accounts and used to buy thinly traded stocks in "pump and dump" schemes.

According to the report, the brokerages and banks have been reimbursing affected customers.

MacDonald noted in the report that this was not proven by the Securities and Exchange Commission to have been tied to the "flash crash" on May 6.

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