Bank Account Fraud , there are various types of fraud that can damage individuals, such as credit card fraud, spoofing loans, and spoofing tax refunds, but this time we will consider bank account fraud and fraud (called Bank Account Fraud in English). .. According to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker Annual Risk Report, in 2018, 50,000 people were scammed and the average damage was $ 152 / case. The amount of damage varied, and some people suffered thousands of dollars. Of the fraud victims, 1 in 4 cases did not return the damage amount and were borne by themselves.

Although the number of personal damages is decreasing due to the strengthening of security on the financial institution side, the method is becoming more sophisticated, and once it is damaged, it seems that the amount of damage tends to be large. Bank account fraud is, in a sense, a loophole. This is because it cannot be prevented even by freezing credit reports, and victim protection is insufficient.

I think many people have recently frozen their credit reports in response to the recent repeated personal information leaks with Adobe, eBay, Equifax, LinkedIn, Marriott, and Yahoo. In the past, freeze / unfreeze procedures were complicated and often required fees, but as the need for freezes has increased and needs have become more common, online procedures are now available for free. .. If you don’t plan to use your credit score for the time being, freezing makes sense. Freeze will block access to your credit score and prevent new account fraud. It is possible to prevent cases such as opening a new credit card account or taking out a new loan by impersonating the person. * Addition: We have received comments from the websites of credit bureau companies that it is difficult to find a page for Freeze. I think the easiest way is to search for each company’s name (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) and the word “freeze”.

For existing accounts (for example, credit cards and bank accounts you already have), credit report freeze does not work. Because the account has already been opened, unauthorized use on it cannot be caught. However, in the case of a credit card, if you check the usage history properly and make a complaint within 60 days, the liability for victims of fraudulent use is limited to $ 50 by law, and in fact that $ 50 is also credited. It is normal for the credit card company to bear the burden and the victim’s liability is virtually zero.

It is the existing bank account that leaks from these two protections. Unauthorized use and fraud related to checking accounts and saving accounts cannot be prevented by credit report freeze, and even if there is damage, there is no generous victim protection like credit cards. Nowadays, the number of bank account frauds, especially for business, is increasing, and the amount of damage is increasing from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many bank account scams are aimed at business because business targets can steal a large amount of money, but not just personal targets. Given this situation, how should we be careful as an individual to prevent damage?

There are three main types

Phishing

You will be asked to impersonate the store where you bought something before, your workplace, or the bank you use all the time, and send you an email with personal information to contact you with your personal information. .. If your email account is hacked, you will often receive messages from familiar email addresses with which you are always interacting. If the content of the email has been read, you may receive the text with a content that is highly customized according to your personal situation. In terms of content, ask for donations for charity and fundraising, encourage the purchase of recommended products and services, encourage applications for credit cards, etc., and connect to public sites such as tax and legal affairs. Or, you can use various hands to enter personal information and steal it.

Malware

Malicious + software = malware can infiltrate your PC through email attachments, pop-ups on the net, files to download, etc., allowing fraudsters to access their PC features completely unnoticed. will do so. It seems that most of the malware does not get caught in the security function installed in the PC, and it is scary because it is reading the keyboard typing without knowing it. It seems that there are various types, but some are included in e-cards received by email, attachments and links, and downloaded screen savers.

Scams

I think that phishing and malware are scams in a broad sense, but the scam here is not a scam without knowing it, but rather a type of scam that I believed in and was willing to pay. Thing. The person provides personal information or pays in response to promotions such as “buy cheap”, “profitable”, “special for now”, and “student loan is reduced”. For example, you pay first as a deposit, or you are charged for credit card information, and when you notice later, the other party is gone.

When I read it in writing, I think that it is absolutely impossible to catch it, but when it becomes very clever, it seems that it is often difficult not to catch it. Not long ago, MSNBC sent a fake email to its staff in the newsroom as part of a news report on phishing. It looks like an email from our employer, MSNBC, and we need to upgrade our company-supplied mobile phone, so immediately enter your ID and personal information to apply. It was the content. More than half of the staff got caught. If you look closely, the logo may be a little strange, or if you think about it, you may find that your company has never sent such an email, but human thinking is very limited and MSNBC’s news room. I was watching while thinking that I would be caught soon because even a sophisticated person in the world who works at the company is like this.

Then there is an example like this. When I logged in to the bank’s site to pay as usual, an error message appeared in a pop-up window saying, “Something is wrong, please check your personal information for authentication.” She went to her usual banking site and logged in, and she was convinced she wasn’t a weird site, so she completely believed and entered her information. However, before this point, it seems that this person had been inviting malware to his PC by email or some other means. The malware popped up this pop-up window in response to a login. Of course, at this point the login information was stolen, and the personal information entered was also stolen. After that, she was able to complete the payment procedure, but she felt something strange, so she contacted the bank. It turned out to be a scam and prevented subsequent damage.

As the technique is so sophisticated, you need to be careful, careful, and careful.

Below is a list of cautions;

• Don’t click links unless you really trust the email. No personal information will be replied. Check your email for anything strange or unusual. Also, a scammer may break into the other person’s email account and send fraudulent emails from that person’s own email account, so even if the address is correct, if you think something is wrong, do not respond.

• Security software for PCs and mobile phones will be updated properly.

• When you download an app or file, check the source properly and check that it is reliable over and over again. Ignore pop-up promotions basically. If your PC behaves differently (suddenly, pop-ups, slowdowns, etc.), suspect an infection and deal with it. Do not log in to your account or buy things online in this state.

• Use credit cards with the highest possible protection for online shopping. Avoid remittances from your bank account as much as possible. If you can’t use a credit card, use a prepaid debit card (the damage stays in the prepaid amount even if it’s damaged) (although credit cards are more expensive than debit cards in terms of protection).

• I doubt it anyway. First of all, suspect that it may be malicious (unfortunately), such as emails, text messages, and phone calls.

• Increase the number of digits in the password and increase the complexity. If it is provided, use 2-step authentication (double authentication with a text code received on your mobile phone after logging in). If necessary, consider using a password management service (such as Norton Vault).

• Check your account statement regularly. Also, if provided by the bank, always check by using a service that will notify you by text or email about activities to your account (checks have been redeemed, debit transactions, remittances, etc.). do.

• If you receive a call, even if you call yourself the bank, business, or government agency you use all the time, you suspect the possibility of spoofing. If you are asked for personal information or a social security number, first hang up without providing it and re-examine the contact information of the organization or institution.