E-payment fraudsters revealed

Most e-payment frauds are perpetrated by ‘insiders’. Present and former I.T staff of financial institutions are the ones most likely to defraud you through e-payment. Watch Out! Ignorance of e-payment can make you an easy victim. So also is carelessness on your part or on the part of other bank workers. You must not be careless with you card, and most importantly, you must not be careless with your Personal Identification Number (PIN). Some people perform transactions on the ATM or on the web in the full glare of other people, especially friends or relatives, who accompany them. Some people are wont to request for the help of a bank staff, security personnel etc, to assist them perform transactions on the ATM. In the process, they enter their PIN while the fellow is there watching or pretend to be looking elsewhere. You need to realise that the ‘insider’ e-payment fraudster does not operate alone. He works either with a colleague, or an outsider, to spy on cardholders and steal their card information like the PIN. Another act of carelessness has to do with how customers dispose receipts obtained from ATM or PoS after a transaction. Some may claim that since the receipt does not contain their PIN, then there is no harm. The reality, however, is that you are dealing with an insider, who can utilise such information to defraud you in a way you may not imagine. The wisdom is that, except where absolutely necessary (most of the time, it is not), don’t request for receipt or statement after transaction on the ATM. Since you will likely get either email or text alert, you don’t need the statement. So whenever the ATM asks if you want to obtain statement, press NO. And anytime you have to obtain such statement, especially from PoS, keep it the way you keep your money. Another careless practice that exposes customers to e-payment fraud is sharing PIN with spouse, house helps, or people they have intimate relationship with. People do it, and it has cost them money. If you have been doing so, desist, it is risky. The fellow you share your PIN may not be as careful as you are. Moreso nobody can be completely trusted. You will be amazed when you hear stories of people who have fallen victim of epayment fraud through the carelessness or connivance of intimate people they shared PIN with. Finally, some customers are careless on the internet. In recent times, there have been barrage of emails supposedly from banks, disseminating fake information and requesting people to enter their PIN and other card information into a cloned website of a particular bank. The emails always have a sense of urgency. And out share naivety, some customers have gone to the website and entered their card information, only to discover they have been defrauded. As a rule, don’t respond to any email or web request from any bank. You may read, but don’t respond to any request from such emails. Banks do not, and I repeat, banks do not request customers to supply information through emails. They may communicate important information through email, but they don’t request for information especially card information.