The Cyber Frauds

And how to keep your money safe from them.

- Teena Jain Kaushal

Not so long ago, your money-related transactions used to be between you and your bank. It was a closed loop with everything happening in the premises of the bank. The scope for frauds was limited. Over the last few years, as technologies such as internet and mobile banking spread, thousands of people can fall victim to one cyber attack or fraud in a matter of minutes. And with the arrival of third-party financial service providers, such as mobile wallets and UPI, the scope for attacks has expanded, requiring additional efforts from financial institutions to protect their networks and systems.

Last month, when malicious ransomware (in which the attacker locks down your computer and demands money to unlock it) infected hundreds of computers in different countries, questions were raised on how safe are we from cyber attacks, especially when digital transactions are increasing by leaps and bounds?. Consider this: the number of Paytm users recently crossed the 200 million figure, all in a period of just seven years. The question arises -- with technology and financial services integrating at a fast pace, how safe is it to transact online?

Here is a detailed account of the different ways to make digital payments and, more important, how secure are each one of these methods.

AADHAAR PAY

A vast majority of people in the country do not have access to mobile wallets or debit cards. They still depend on cash for day-to-day transactions. For example, India has 867 million debit card and 31 million credit card holders.

To make all these people part of digital India, the government has launched Aadhaar Pay, a platform that allows you to make payments using Aadhaar number linked bank accounts. It is a merchant version of Aadhaar enabled payment system which lets you make payments without a smartphone. One just requires the fingerprint of the payer for authentication; there is no need for a POS machine to swipe the card.