With the establishment’s push towards becoming a cashless economy gaining traction, the number of people expected to transact and bank online is expected to continue to grow. But how do you keep your money safe in a world where frauds operate safely behind international borders and getting lost money back is a mammoth, even impossible, task? Here, Express decodes how to be safe in a digital world and what to do if affected.
What do online fraudsters do?
Phishing
sending fake mails to steal sensitive data such as bank account numbers and passwords
Skimming
use a device to steal card information at PoS terminals
Vishing
making a person divulge personal/financial details over the phone
ATM skimming
tampering with ATM machines to collect data of cards
Card cloning
data of original card imprinted on another card
Indians lax about cyber security
Millennials most lax about security: 34% were happy to share passwords
Nearly one in three (33%) Indians have either experienced ransomware or know someone who has
27% of these victims actually paid ransom to gain access to their files.
Only 56% of consumers knew how to determine whether the Wi-Fi network they are using is secure
How to Be Safe
What to do?
Have strong passwords
Keep changing bank-related passwords at regular intervals and prefer complex strong passwords
Don’t have the same password for multiple bank accounts
Change the passwords if you hear about any data theft and don’t use passwords that are easy to predict, such as date of birth.
Register your mobile and email id with your bank
The RBI mandates banks to send online alerts for all card transactions. Update your phone number and email id with your bank.
Set limits
Transaction limits on every card are a must to limit loss. Banks allow setting separate limits for transactions such as e-commerce, PoS and ATM. One can have a different limit for each.
Revisit privacy settings on social media
Among security questions banks ask is your sibling’s name, pet’s name etc. and these can be easily fished out from your social media accounts.
Change settings on sites such as Facebook so that only close friends and family members can access information.
What to do if you are conned?
Inform your bank immediately.If there is a third-party breach where neither the bank nor the customer is at fault, the customer will have no liability if he or she has informed the bank about the transaction within three working days.
If the card issuer is at fault, the customer will be fully reimbursed. Card issuers and payment processors buy insurance to secure themselves against financial losses from such frauds.
Block your card immediately. Call on the bank’s customer care number if you suspect that there has been a fraudulent transaction through your card.
File a first information report with the police