> rediff.com > > May 08, 2008 > > Have you ever been a victim of > online frauds? > How did it happen to you? Did you lose any money? Did you inform your bank? > What steps did your bank take to help you? Did the incident make you wiser? > What steps do you take now to protect your online identity and confidential > details like banking passwords? > > This is what we asked > Get Ahead > readers. And here's an interesting experience that reader Ramesh > Vishwanathan, 35, a software engineer from India had in Australia. > > My horrible experience with internet banking fraud relates to a foreign bank. > I am a software engineer working for a leading IT company in India. I was > sent to Australia for a year. Like many Indian software engineers, I had a > dream of saving Rs 10-12 lakh a year, return to India, and buy a house. > > As per the company rules I had to open a salary account in ANZ Bank, > Australia. After 6 months, I managed to save 10,000 Australian dollars and > decided > to buy a laptop. This is where my troubles began. > > I visited the Dell Australia site (from my official computer), where I > customised my laptop and went to the payment page. I had to choose from > various payment > options, which were credit card, online fund transfer, cheque etc. Since I > didn't have an Australian credit card and wasn't sure about how long the > cheque > might take to be processed, I decided to use the online fund transfer > facility. > > I had to enter my name and address and other details. As soon as I clicked > enter, I was supposed to be navigated to a page where I would receive the Dell > Australia's bank account details. Instead, I was surprised to see a credit > card authorisation page, where my address was already present in the credit > card number field. This is where I committed the biggest mistake. I clicked > the 'back' button. I went back to the online fund transfer page, entered my > details once again and pressed enter. Then I received Dell Australia's bank > account details. I opened my bank website (on the same window, another > mistake), > logged in and completed my fund transfer. > > Dell Australia received my payment, I received my laptop within 10 days and I > thought all was well. > List of 1 items > *> Dear bank customers... Beware of such e-mails > list end > > After a week, I received a call from a lady in Bangalore, on behalf of ANZ, > asking me whether I have made any donation to a guy in the Netherlands. I was > shocked. The lady said that she was at ANZ's clearing centre and asked me to > immediately open my bank account page. I found that there were 3 international > fund transfers of 5,000, 2,000 and 1,000 Australian dollars made to an > account in the Netherlands. > > She told me that since the account holder was an Indian name and the balance > was only 10,000 Australian dollars, she felt that the person was probably an > Indian software guy who would not really make such a 'donation'. I thanked > her for her presence of mind and asked her to immediately cancel the > transactions. > She told me that she could stop two of them, but one transaction of 2,000 > Australian dollars had already gone through and she would not be able to stop > it. She advised me to contact the local ANZ branch and take further action. > > I had to rush to the branch, lodge a complaint, then file a case with the > local police station and undergo enough mental torture. After three months of > tension, ANZ Bank finally returned the stolen money to my account. > > Had the clearing agent in Bangalore not stopped two of those transactions, I > would have been left without any money in my account. > List of 1 items > *> Don't be a victim of online frauds > list end > > What had really happened was that the person stealing the account details was > tracking the Dell site and capturing the internet banking login details. > Unfortunately, > unlike many Indian bank [ > Get Quote] > sites, there was no provision of verifying online payee details. I have not > used ANZ banking site for a long time now. I don't know if they have improved > the security of the site. > > I have learnt my lesson and decided that I would: > > ~ Use online fund transfer facility only if the site offers payee > verification facility. Otherwise, request the bank to disable the facility > ~ Use internet banking only on personal laptop at home > ~ Close ALL other windows and chat sessions while opening internet banking > and always open a fresh browser window to login to the bank site > ~ NEVER use the back button when a payment is involved > ~ Have a latest version of anti virus and spyware software, even if it means > purchasing a licensed version for Rs 2,000 a year. Avoid buying pirated > version > of anti-virus software for Rs 300 from local vendors, as they will not have > online version updation facility > > I hope sharing my experience will be useful to everyone using internet > banking facility. > > Disclaimer: This is a reader-driven feature. The views expressed by the > readers are their own, and not that of Rediff.com. Rediff.com has not altered > the To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe.
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