Top 10 tips to stop net banking scams; save your money, do this

People are being targetted by fraudsters via very crafty net banking scams. The safety of your money is in your hands. Here is how to stop fraudsters stealing from you.

Did you know that when you go online to carry out some net banking transaction, you may have already compromised the safety of your money? Perhaps not. (Shutterstock) (HT_PRINT)

A huge number of people have lost money due to net banking scams because they made mistakes that allowed fraudsters to get access to their secret information, from username, password, PIN, debit card details, credit card details to even ATM card details. If the account holder is not careful about keeping these numbers a secret, then she or he will end up losing their money to cybercriminals.

How it all works

People have taken to net banking in huge numbers over the last 2 years. However, this has also drawn cybercriminals to the segment and they are looking to exploit the fact that most people are confused about how net banking is done and some are not at all confident. This gap in knowledge is taken advantage of by cybercriminals.

Cases of people losing their money have been revealed recently. Among them are those where the bank account holder is interacting with a lender via email and has to pay a big amount. However, cybercriminals manage to interject themselves in this mail trail without the bank account holder becoming aware of it. Ultimately, the cybercriminals sent their account number and persuaded the bank account holder to send them the money.

Notably, if the mistake is reported to the bank or financial institution on time, the account holder may get the money back. However, for this, the affected people will have to run from pillar to post and can be especially frustrating. To save yourself all this trouble, it would be better to be extra careful.

So, while transferring money, account holders must take care to:

1. Verify the financial institution that you are actually dealing with

2. Verify the bank account you will transfer the money to

3. When there is even a little bit of doubt, do not transfer money

4. Call the official call centre of the institution to verify details

5. When there is doubt, do not hesitate to visit the official branch

6. Do not believe anyone's statement through mail or social media without verification

7. Always take printscreens of all your net banking transactions

8. Make sure Twitter account of financial institution has verified blue tick mark

9. In case you transfer the money to the wrong bank account, report the same to the banking institution as soon as possible.

10. Make sure the website of the financial institution has 'https' in its URL. Check browser to verify

In short, people are increasingly being swindled of their money online and this is largely happeningbecause Cybercrimnals persuade them that they are their bank executives. Account holders are thereafter, persuaded to transfer the money to these cybercriminals account. Shockingly, many account holders actually transfer their money to cybercriminals. The biggest reason this kind of shocking cybercrime happens is because people do not verify the details of the alleged bank.

So, watch out, do not trust anyone, Verify before you send money to anyone.

* People are increasingly being swindled of their money online.

* This happens when Cybercrimnals persuade people they are from a bank

* Account holders are told to transfer the money to their account

* Many account holders actually transfer their money to cybercriminals

* That is because they do not verify the details of the alleged bank.