08 Oct 2022
Do you know which financial institutions are insulated from online frauds and scams? Well, to your utter surprise, there are none! From conventional to modern, various methods are available to send money across borders. Earlier, banks have always been considered one of the most secure financial institutions that most people used in the past.
Secure transactions are always the foremost concern for every overseas worker since people move abroad to earn better and send funds back home for financial support. Expatriates from developing states such as India travel to developed countries to seek better employment opportunities as they cannot find decent work in their native countries. Thus, they send money to India or any other country they belong to, and they primarily need secure channels for this purpose.
Growing cyber crimes and financial frauds have become uncontrollable as well as unbearable for people across the world. Bank frauds have swiftly inflated worldwide, where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported 9,103 banking frauds in 2022 in India alone. As an overseas worker, you must be worried about avoiding such scams and what to do if you have fallen victim to one of such problems. Let’s figure out everything about banking fraud and how you can avoid them when you have to transfer funds to India from overseas regularly.
Taking a look at the economy of India is appropriate here.
These statistics show that despite India's robust economy, it still cannot provide sufficient work opportunities to its massive population of over 1.4 billion. This is why Indian people go to developed countries to earn better and send money to India online for financial support through banks or many online money transfer companies, including ACE Money Transfer.
Although the advent of many credible online companies has marginalised online frauds to substantial levels but exist, they still do. The one positive aspect of falling prey to bank fraud is that there are some chances of getting your money back in case of fraud. These chances are negligible, but banks still have some policies to compensate for your financial loss, unlike other institutions.
Let’s now try to understand bank fraud.
The use of illegal means to deprive others of money, assets or property held for safekeeping by the banks is known as bank fraud. When a fraudulent person contacts you, pretends to be the representative of a bank or any other financial institution and obtains money from the depositors by applying different tactics such as asking for card details or account details, etc., it is also known as bank fraud. Bank frauds are considered criminal offences in every country across the world.
Fraud and scams can happen anywhere, yet making an online money transfer to India or any other origin country is much more reliable than conventional methods. Choosing an Authorised Payment Institution (API) such as ACE Money Transfer will protect you from financial fraud.
Let’s now look at some of the types of bank fraud.
All of these frauds are also known as online frauds or scams. But, here, they are discussed with a narrow focus on banks.
In this fraud, the scammer will attach a skimming device to the ATM or any other machine on which you swipe your card. This skimming device steals the data from your card's magnetic strip that the scammer will use to steal your money.
If you are not careful enough in a store while shopping and take your eyes off the card you have given to the cashier for swiping, you risk getting it stolen by someone standing nearby and waiting to pray on your negligence or carelessness.
In this scam, the scammer will trick you into believing you have received an email from your bank or a financial institution whose services you avail. The scammers deceptively get your personal information in the name of the bank or the institution.
In this fraud, the scammers will steal your card from your mailbox even before you realise it is there. And after they have successfully stolen it, they can make fraudulent purchases.
If you fall prey to fraud, there is little the bank can do to guarantee a refund. Of course, the bank stands exonerated if you shared your sensitive information with a caller you believed represented your bank or clicked a link shared with you in a suspicious email; you can’t blame the bank for your negligence.
Send money to India online using a trusted service. You’ll have peace of mind with their security mechanism as they never process payments without authenticating from the original user.
Albeit, the presence of scammers and the uncontrollable growth of scams are absolute. However, the following are a few steps that can help you stay safe with your global money transfers.
Whether you use banks locally or for cross-border transactions as an Indian expatriate, you can take a few steps to ensure protection.
It’s unlikely that you can get your money back, which an online thief has stolen or extorted from you through unfair means. Most of such cases happen during shopping and paying online, where locating and reaching out to scammers is never easy. Nevertheless, some platforms can offer help in this regard. You can consider these steps if you have faced such issues.
