Criminals recently hacked into Executive Producer Christa’s brokerage account and she’s not the only one. Customers from TD Ameritrade, eTrade and Charles Schwab have all been hit. How is it happening? Criminals are hacking into accounts and stealing all of your money within three days. The scary part is that there is no protection under federal law if your brokerage account is compromised. So, you’ve got to wake up. If you don’t check your brokerage account very often online, just get paper statements. Never go online. Or, if you check a lot, make sure it’s at least twice a week. That way you can see if it has been tampered with. Also, don’t use a general use computer at a hotel or public location. Crooks are installing key-stroke programs on these machines so they get your passwords and financial information. When accessing your brokerage account, do so from your home computer. And, if possible, do business with a company that has sophisticated login and security procedures.