RetirEd | New members welcome and introductions | Discussion forum

Hello Ed,

I too would prefer not to have to deal with anything online But I came to the conclusion it probably doesn't matter that much because the FIs have everything on computer anyway, so hacking is going to continue, and the FIs are bigger, more attractive, fish than I. The breach some of us experienced at Peoples Trust several years ago, for instance, had to do with the FI itself's vulnerabilities.

So, I continue with internet banking. Best advice is to change passwords frequently, make all your passwords different and unintelligible, download and print statements as soon as available, check them carefully, avoid public computers for banking.
Some techie types probably have more and better ideas.

Rick said
...... NEVER click on an email link no matter how legit it looks.
  

In addition, never use a search engine to get the link to your bank for logging in. There have been cases of spoofed listings for financial institutions on search engines, that recorded users' login information when users clicked on that malicious, but legitimate looking search engine listing and cleaned out their accounts.

Best advice, as has been mentioned is to use your own, proven link, on your own computer (device) as the only way to connect to a financial institution.

Oh yes, and never, never click on any link in any email, even if the email comes from a FI or business you deal with. That's how phishing emails that look like the real thing trap unsuspecting users.

Even savvy techie types have been fooled by some really well made phishing emails!

Stephen

If you do decide to get to the home page of a FI by using Google's search, do not choose the ad for that FI at the top of the results page. That is more likely to be a phishing site than the other search results. Also, look carefully at the address of the web page that it is spelled correctly, and if you click on it to go there, make sure that the address is https not http.

But preferably bookmark the correct web address for each FI.

And as mentioned before, just because you don't bank online doesn't mean you won't get just as much identity theft as everyone else when your FI gets hacked. 50% of the time it's because of internal fraud.

That's not the way the agreements are.

Peoples Trust never blamed the clients for their web server writing an extra copy of the application information to an uncontrolled log file.

If one looks into the cases of online banking users being stuck with losses, one finds that the losses were because of something they did. There was a case on CBC MarketPlace involving an Interac e-Transfer that the bank refused to cover the loss from.

How did the culprit get a hold of the unique link needed to claim the money? How was the culprit able to provide the correct answer to the security question to claim the money?

The answers to those two questions showed that it wasn't the bank's fault.

It is not very different from a non-online banking case where the bank refused full compensation for some ATM withdrawals. Bank questioned how some woman the customer met the night before was able to both obtain the ATM card and provide the correct PIN on the first attempt.

"banks are increasingly refusing to cover clients for scams". I'd need some data re. client losses to scams statistics to believe that, RetirEd.

It also depends on what the scam is.

Should a cheque payable to Alice be stolen out of her mailbox and a fake endorsement made to cash the cheque fraudulently, the sender's bank can recover the funds from the bank that cashed that cheque. So, the sender's bank will appear to cover the fraud and reimburse the sender of the cheque.

However, if the sender is tricked by his bookkeeper into signing a payroll cheque for Bob, who is not an employee, and Bob cashes the cheque, then the sender's bank is not going to cover the fraud because it cannot recover the money from the bank that cashed the cheque for Bob. As far as Bob's bank is concerned, cheque was payable to Bob and Bob cashed the cheque.

Lots of scams these days are more like the second one than the first because banks have made it difficult to pull ones like the first.

RetireEd, I agree, the agreements are getting stricter as things go on, I'm sure the banks have seen a fair bit now as to the problem behaviours so are being more specific in their requirements. And I agree, by being offline you're much safer. Who rifles through garbage to get data any more? The crooks are basically online, we're told.

I'm quite content with financial institutions that are over-sticklers about online security, I want my money protected.