New Delhi, April 19: After several initiatives by the government of promoting cashless transactions post demonetisation last year, digital payments have seen a substantial jump in their business. But with the growing rate of online payments across the nation, crimes related to online banking and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) frauds have also been on a rise. Several incidences have come to light where fraudsters withdraw money from somebody else’s account and dupe people on a large scale. Cosmos Bank Fraud, UPI And More - Beware Of These New Age Online Frauds.

A recent  incident from the national capital has raised concerns on the safety of bank account holders as several online transactions had taken place without their knowledge. As many as 61 account holders of Punjab National Bank's (PNB)'s Vasant Vihar branch approached the police complaining that they lost approximately Rs 15 lakh to fraudulent transactions in a span of three days earlier this month. Online Frauds & ATM Debit Card Scams: Follow These Simple Steps To Protect Yourself.

Reports inform that the incident came to light after several PNB account holders started complaining about multiple ATM transactions which were carried out without their knowledge. After the online fraud was reported, several customers approached the manager of PNB's Vasant Vihar branch in the national capital on April 8, complaining about the unknown transactions. Here are some simple steps to ensure safety for your online transactions. 

As the account holders created a ruckus, the bank compiled a list of complainants and found that 61 people have lost the money from their accounts. According to the bank statement, the amount siphoned off was Rs 14, 97,769.

Here are Three Steps To Stay Safe From ATM Data Breach:

Protect yourself from theft of information and breach of data in three easy steps.

  1. Users need to enable autolock for their devices

  2. Use a PIN for your SIM to prevent people from making use of it, if stolen.

  3. Set a password for your memory card

After the online fraud, PNB took to Twitter to alert customers to protect themselves from the theft of information and breach of data in three easy steps. Moreover, skimming is mostly observed in online frauds these days. In skimming, the fraudsters manage to get the card details of the user by using a small device (skimmer) during a legitimate ATM transaction.

Take a look at the tweet by PNB:

After this, whenever the card is swiped at the merchant's machine, skimmer steals the information stored on the card's magnetic strip. The process functions as it transmits the information to the fraudster, who then clones the card using this information. The fraudsters attach the skimmer in the card slot of ATM's or merchant payment terminals to dupe people. This is also called phishing.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2019 09:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).