Three Indian men were arrested in Hong Kong and charged today with an elaborate Pump and Dump scheme involving hacked brokerage accounts at ETrade and TDAmeritrade, and pumping well known stocks like Google.
Using stolen identity information, the men were able to hack into numerous brokerage accounts to pump selected securities. According to the Associated Press, one victim had $180,000 in their account, only to return home from a trip and discover a $200,000 deficit.
The three hackers profited by purchasing securities and using stolen accounts to inflate the prices. A fourth conspirator is still at large. ETrade reports losing $18 million in the third quarter due to online fraud. Etrade (ETFC) is off 6 cents at the time of this writing.
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