Recently, a person did a financial transaction on his cellphone to buy a top-up voucher at an airport, not realising that it would cost him ₹1.5 lakh. Sitting in a corner of the lounge, he used his debit card to but the recharge voucher and in the process, it did not occur to him that he was sitting close to a CCTV security camera. Within 15 minutes, he received a message that ₹1.5 lakh had been debited from his back account.
Police investigation revealed that the security person who watched him doing the online transaction on camera had noted down his confidential details and used it to siphon the money from the bank account.
“The moral is that one must be careful while doing any financial transaction online. The fraudsters always try to be a few steps ahead of their targets,” said Dr. Harish Ramani, of Tevel Cyber Corps, who was in the city recently to deliver a talk on cyber crime. Cyber crime cases are on the rise with Visakhapatnam city recording close to 500 cases per annum. But, the fraudsters can be kept at bay if the people exert a bit of caution, observed DCP (crime) A.R. Damodhar.
Dos and don’ts
The law and order authorities and financial institutions issue the precautionary measures to be followed while doing financial transactions online. One must not write down the PIN of their debit and credit cards anywhere and it is better to memorise them. “Under no circumstances, the bank authorities ask the customers to disclose the confidential details pertaining to ebit and credit cards,” said the DCP.
According to police, the customers must avoid the ATMs at isolated places and those with broken machines. It is advisable to use machines at the banks where there is 24-hour security,” said Cyber Crime Police Station inspector Gopinath. Similarly, cares should be taken while swiping cards at e-PoS terminals. “Customers should never type the PIN in front of the sales persons. Punching the PIN away from public glare is the key,” he added.
Mr. Gopinath said one should register for SMS alerts and it is good to change the PIN often.
‘Credit card safer’
The police caution that one should update the antivirus and anti-spyware protection on PCs, laptops and cellphones and ensure that the security settings are optimised. “It is advisable to use credit cards instead of debit cards as credit cards have limits while debit cards do not. In case of debit cards, one can access the bank accounts,” said DCP (Law and Order) K. Fakkeerappa.
One should also ensure that online sites have encrypted its payment form. Check whether the site is locked with padlock icon and see that the site address begin with ‘https’ instead of ‘http’, said Dr. Harish.