Articles Tagged with protecting your investment

There’s a new wild west. The internet age has brought bank robbers from the prairie plains to the world wide web. As investors and brokerage firms increasingly rely on computers for processing trades and managing portfolios, the risk of your investment data increases too. One of the biggest threats to online data is ransomware.

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a computer virus that targets your computers digital files and literally holds them for ransom until a payment is sent for their release. So far this year, we have already experienced two widespread ransomware attacks: the WannaCry virus, back in May, and now the Petya virus in June.

The Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA) announced fines against 12 securities firms for their failure to accurately protect consumer records.

FINRA carried out fines, totaling $14.4 million, against 12 securities brokerage firms, including some of the largest-backed firms in the country.

FINRA found that these firms storing broker-dealer and consumer records without precautions in place to prevent alteration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that investors should be on the lookout for fraudulent claims using Forms 4.

A Form 4 is filed when investment insiders (officers, directors and anyone holding 10% or more in company securities) execute transactions. A Form 4, which must be filed within two days following a transaction, serves to inform the public of the insider’s transactions in company stock and other securities.

Apparently, scammers and fraudsters are posing as brokers and providing false Forms 4 and other official documentation to investors in order to sell them fake shares. By using forms that appear to be sent from the SEC and other regulatory agencies, scammers seek to legitimize fraudulent claims.

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