Hackers Zero In on Online Stock Accounts

Via the Washington Post:

Hackers have been breaking into customer accounts at large online brokerages in the United States and making unauthorized trades worth millions of dollars as part of a fast-growing new form of online fraud under investigation by federal authorities.

Anyone else being pummled with an onslaught of advertisements to buy penny stocks? This recent spate of online brokerage fraud seems to be related to the same pump-and-dump schemes showing up in your inbox. Buy a penny stock at a low price. Spam a bunch of people and say that it’s a great deal—inevitably some will agree and buy it. Why not stop there? Use other peoples’ accounts to buy a bunch of it too, pumping up the price. Then, sell your stock and profit!

This seems like it should be solvable. The SEC and the minor markets should put a bunch of honeypots out there, and get a bunch of email addresses on as many mailing lists as possible. As soon as they receive a spam message about a particular stock, they should hold off all trading on it for a few hours…