If you’ve stopped driving to your local banks and started clicking on your online bank account, then you’ve probably experienced a great deal of the perks of online banking. Compared to your local banks, online banks provide greater convenience because you can make transactions from the comfort of your home, and at any hour of the day or night. Also, if you found a good deal, online banks could save you quite a bit of money over the long run, largely because you don’t have to pay ATM fees and other fees of real banks. Maybe you even have your online bank’s system set up so that you can automatically pay your bills online, and don’t have to worry about that hassle every month. After experiencing all these new benefits, there’s no way you’d go back to the old way of doing things at physical banks.
But what if you found out that your online banking account was making you a high-risk victim of theft and fraud? A computer hacker is born every minute, and sometimes they can hijack your online banking account without you even realizing it until it’s too late. Sometimes, however, you can take a few safety precautions and decrease your risk of theft at your online banks.
Sometimes bank thieves will try to trick online bankers by sending them phishing e-mails disguised as e-mails from the official online banks. If you receive an e-mail supposedly from online banks requesting personal information such as your ID numbers or passwords, don’t respond with any of this information. Online banks will never ask for this information over e-mail or any other type of non-secure format.
Online bank thieves also sometimes try to lure customers into revealing personal information by spoofing Web sites, or Web sites that closely resemble those of the official banks, but actually have no affiliation with these banks in any way. Always double check your online bank’s Web site name so you don’t, for example, accidentally go to g00gle.org instead of google.com, or some other similarly spoofed name.
Sometimes, however, someone make hack into your online bank account without you ever knowing it or without or having any ability to prevent it. For example, people can send you e-mail with viruses such as Trojans, which look harmless up to the moment they release their infection. Other common viruses include spyware, which can track the information you type on your computer (your ID and password at online banks) and automatically send it somewhere else without you ever doing anything out of the ordinary.
Online banks are working on ways to combat these thefts and frauds, such as software designed to detect unusual account withdrawals from online banks. Also, banks might create a system where all users have a picture identification for ATMs, and a face scan would approve the customer’s eligibility. Thankfully, if you do have the misfortune of experiencing online bank fraud, you have 60 days to notify your bank and receive reimbursement. Hopefully with the combination of customer alertness and extra bank precautions, you won’t go through the experience of online banking problems.
By Lisa Zyga