Top 8 tips to protect yourself from fraudsters

Home

Services

Products

Help

Get App

Today, banking as a service has become extremely accessible and banking functions have become quick. Transactions can now take place on one’s fingertips. However, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility; one has to ensure that caution is exercised while dealing with matters of money. To illustrate this point further, here is a list of top 8 tips on Safe Banking:

1. Keep your login credentials private

The most underrated yet crucial point that people often forget about is that they should not share their login details, PIN, OTPs with anyone. Most people will trust anyone and everyone with their bank details and passwords only to regret later. Banks would never randomly call or email a customer and ask them to reveal their passwords or OTPs. Bank account details, personal details and passwords should be kept private to ensure security.

2. Do not trust any unreliable email/SMS

Watch out for suspicious or even authentic-looking emails redirecting you to what looks like your bank’s websites. These emails/SMSes are fabricated to guide you to a fake website which may misuse your credentials. As a rule of thumb, always use the url www.kotak.com to access Kotak Bank’s website.

3. Password protection is essential

Special attention should be given to generating a password for your online banking account. It should be

Strong: Use a combination of alpha-numeric and special characters
Unique: Ensure that it is entirely different from any password used for any other account
Unpredictable: Stay away from commonly used passwords like 123456, 121212, etc.
Avoid References: Avoid pop-culture references, sports teams and personal information. Do not use your address, birthday, names of family members or pets’ names. The longer and more unique your passwords are, the harder they will be for hackers to crack.
Updated Frequently: It is advisable to change your banking password at regular intervalsAnother important tip would be to disable the ‘Remember/Save this Password’ option on your computer.

4. Safety begins with your device

An essential rule of practising safe banking is ensuring that the device you use for your banking transactions is safe and impenetrable. People often neglect the task of protecting their computer or mobile phone with a licensed anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Updating software on your computer, tablet and phone can seem like a pain, but it is a crucial step to keeping devices safe. These updates fix bugs, software vulnerabilities and security problems. Regularly updating your smartphone apps and operating systems makes your devices more secure.Even better, turn on automatic updates. You can set your computer, browser, apps and phone to update automatically as soon as new updates become available. Set it and forget it!

5. Check your connection

Another overlooked aspect is signing into an online banking account through public WIFI. Public connections act as a hotbed for hackers as they do not insert any layer of security between the user’s data and the hacker. Therefore, it is best to transact banking activities via a secure and trusted connection. Another common mistake is using a public computer to perform personal banking transactions. Publically used machines could even be devoid of personal firewalls, making them vulnerable to viruses and hackers.

6. Monitor your account

The crucial task of keeping track of one’s banking activities has become easier through SMS notifications. SMS alerts instantly notify the registered account-holder about the movement of funds or an attempt to log into one’s bank account. This helps in monitoring every transaction on a real-time basis and staying alert to the possibility of any transgression. Another way to review banking transactions is through a bank statement. Bank Statements present an archive of all of your transactions over a specified time-frame. This makes it easier for the user to scan for disputable and suspicious transactions. Other peripheral services that can be opted for include receiving automatic updates on bank balance and crossing of credit limit.

7. Be careful with your cards

ATM Cards, Debit Cards and Credit Cards have made life easy. But they need to be handled with utmost safety. Due care should be taken while punching in Passwords or PINs so that no other person can view them. In case your cards get stolen or lost, the first step taken should be to report it to Kotak Mahindra Bank immediately and get them blocked. Do not wait for your missing cards to be retrieved.

8. Beware of common banking frauds

The first step of safeguarding yourself against frauds is educating yourself about them. Some common banking frauds include - Phishing, Vishing, Smishing, Juice Jacking, etc. To know more about them, click here.

These are some simple measures that will ensure the execution of smooth and secure banking transactions. Stay alert and DO NOT share your confidential account information such as PIN, CVV, Debit card / Credit Card number, OTP, VBV password, mobile Banking PIN, UPI PIN with anybody. Stay Alert, Stay Safe always.