Retirement and Investment Accounts: Beware of Internet Scams

If you have an IRA, a 401k, or an investment account with a major brokerage you might want to check it. A report recently surfaced that tells of people having their retirement accounts wiped out. We've all heard of credit card fraud and identity theft. Lots of this white collar computer type of theft is going on. Many unfortunate folks are finding that their computer accounts are being hacked. Clever scammers from places like Russia, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and Malaysia are finding access to financial accounts. Now we are finding out that major brokerage accounts are not safe either. Unlike credit cards and checking accounts, brokerage accounts are not protected by the government.

There are reports of people having over $100,000 stolen from their retirement accounts without their knowledge. Major brokerage businesses that handle thousands of retirement IRA type accounts have reported that accounts have been tampered with. For instance, large companies like Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments and Vanguard have all have had a problem with retirement investment accounts being hacked into. Some accounts containing people's life savings for retirement have been emptied by clever computer thieves on the Internet.

One fellow had his retirement savings of 25 years in an account with major brokerage. In this instance the company was JP Morgan. This investor had $179,000 completely stolen from his 401(k) account that he had with J.P. Morgan. It seems that he was on a business trip to China. Somehow, or somewhere, he used a computer that was hacked into. The $179,000 was transferred to a Bank of America account. That account was emptied. 25 years of savings was completely wiped out with a few keystrokes on a computer keyboard. In this particular case the story had a happy ending, and the money was recovered.

In the past, Internet thieves were content with just stealing your credit card information and charging a lot of stuff quickly. Then they would have it sent to a vacant house, where it was delivered. The goods would wind up sold on the street or on eBay and other places. Fast forward to today.

Now, these hackers are going after the big bucks in retirement and brokerage trading accounts that are not closely monitored. According to MSNBC, the firm E*TRADE lost $18 million to these clever Internet crooks last year. These crooks were from Thailand and Eastern Europe.

How can you protect yourself? Well, you need to make sure that you do not do any financial transactions on public computers. Some of this information is stolen from hotels, Internet caf�s, and the like. Don't use your credit card on any public computer. Also, make sure you scan your computer bills for all charges.

What clever crooks are using to gather this information from hotels, restaurants and cyber-cafes is a key logger program. They conceal devices on computer keyboards used in public places. A key-logger program gives the user information that is typed onto a computer keyboard. Things like account numbers and passwords can be found out and used to strip an account of its assets.

The least you can do on your home computer to protect yourself is to get good security programs installed. You need a decent firewall program. One that you can get for free is Zone Alarm. You also need to have a good spy ware program installed. A couple of good ones that are free are Ad-aware and Windows Defender. You can get great free anti- virus protection from a company called AVG. These programs are all recommended by computer geeks and are free. Make sure that you use passwords that are a combination of at least eight numbers and letters. Also change your passwords frequently. Don't be stupid and use things like 1234567 or "password". Take a little time and get a hard to hack password.

We are changing into a cashless society. Computers handle millions of financial transactions daily. Hackers go after, easy money that they find on the Internet. If you're going to use computers for financial transactions please take the proper precautions to protect yourself. Be aware of the fact that your transactions could be compromised. In using public computer facilities away from home be careful.