Digital banking: Nine tips for senior citizens to stay safe and secure

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Banking in today’s age is fully technology driven and with technology getting more and more significant, security of an individual’s fund is becoming extremely crucial. Quite often, we come across incidents where cyber frauds have tried extracting money from unsuspecting citizens. While digital banking has made our finances convenient, it has also made us more vulnerable. Senior citizens are also jumping onto the digital bandwagon for the convenience but experts say they must be aware of the security needs.

With the rise in digital payments, scamsters and fraudsters who have been eyeing this space have come up with their own version of clones to target senior users as they are not aware of all technological nitty-gritty. Moeny9 spoke to multiple experts to make a 9-point guideline for seniors to make themselves safe and secure.

9-point guide

1. Mails and SMS containing information of you winning money are completely fake. Hence, never click on suspicious-looking or too-good-to-be-true offers.

2. Never share your bank account password and user ID with anybody except one or two very close family member of yours. No bank, financial institution or any official ever asks for your ID or password.

3. Do not give any attention to SMS, which said, ‘Your debit card or account is blocked due to non-compliance of KYC’. These types of messages are all fakes, if you get anything like this, then go to your branch and talk to the manager directly.

4. Do not use the same password on every service and banking app, this is a very bad idea. Use unique, strong passwords on every site and app you use. You can use your browser or mobile device’s built-in password manager.

5. Always log yourself out. Make sure you don’t leave any account open when you go away from your computer, phone or another devices.

6. Fraudsters often share a QR code over multimedia apps like WhatsApp and ask people to scan it in order to receive money. Remember, there is no feature which allows you to scan a QR code to receive money. Do not scan any QR code and fall into the trap.

7. Another thing to be wary of is an urgent money transfer request from a close friend or relative on a social media channel, be it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or even WhatsApp. These are fakes and if you get anything like this, then first contact the person who sent the message.

8.  No matter how urgent, never use public WiFi for money transfer. Use safe and secure trusted network of your home.

9. You should make your bank account OTP or biometric protected while paying the money through mobile app or internet banking facility. All registered banking apps have this facility. Do not use any suspicious apps.

Expert view

Experts warn senior citizen to be very alert as they are the soft target of the scamstars. “Any message, link or call related to any financial transaction and/or KYC oriented information should be avoided. The seniors should not panic and should never provide any information and immediately communicate with the bank,” said Rajarshi Rai Choudhury, cyber lawyer and founder director, Cyber Guru.

“If you experience anything like that then first disconnect the internet connectivity so the remote access by the fraudsters gets disconnected. Then communicate with the bank’s customer care number and also inform the matter to the local police station and any cyber expert.” added Rajarshi.

“Usually, a scamster hacks into someone’s account and sends a request which is false but appears to be real. The customer needs to be vigilant to cross-validate such a request via a phone call or other methods. With the increasing usage of social media for interactions, this fraud is becoming quite common among senior citizens too,” said Somsubhra Gupta, an ethical hacker and an IT professor.