Think Online Banking is Safe? Think Again

A new report soon to be issued by the Gartner Group says that more than 2 million people had their checking accounts robbed over the last twelve months. Gartner blames this rise predominantly on online-banking and phishing schemes, which have increased more than 4,000 percent over the past year.

Phishing is when consumers are sent e-mail messages that look legitimate, asking theme to reveal personal information. These messages look like they are coming from companies such as eBay, Citibank, Amazon, etc… They may say that the company is updating its records, or that they have changed their log-on system for their web site. They often request Social Security Numbers and bank account numbers.

Victims who fall for Phishing schemes can find that their bank accounts are wiped out, their identity has been stolen, and there are few if any clues as to who committed the crime.

Thieves are also gaining access to accounts by writing “Trojan horse” programs and key loggers. These programs can invade your computer system, steal your passwords and then deliver them via the internet to the person who wrote the program. Public computers, located at internet café’s or in libraries, are especially vulnerable to these types of programs. Consumers should never log onto their bank accounts from a public access terminal.

According to the Gartner study, the average loss per incident this past year was $1,200 and the total price to the economy was in excess of $2 Billion.