Scammers target all kinds of financial accounts, but those of customers at brokerages and investment-advisory firms have a special appeal: They typically hold large sums of money, often in the six- or seven-figure range. Advisers, regulators and security experts say they have seen a rise in attempts by criminals to siphon funds from them over the past two years. Often, the scams involve use of confidential information that somehow leaked, or was stolen, from the bank or the client. Breaches are all too common: This past week, Morgan Stanley said that a rookie adviser based in New York, Galen Marsh, had managed to take information on some 350,000 wealth-management accounts. Some of the data was posted on the Internet and offered for sale, the firm said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/scammers-target-brokerage-accounts-1420741344?autologin=y