Tips To Safeguard Your Funds For Digital Payments

Over the course of last couple of years, digital payments have gained acceptability and popularity in mainstream India as more and more merchants have started to accept electronic and card payments. The government endeavours to make the economy "cashless" and it is but obvious that the uptake of digital payments is set to increase.

Here we take a look at some of simple measures which can help you (as an end user) safeguard your funds as you join the digital payment bandwagon:

Basic Hygiene: Don't Write Your PIN, Password In A Text File
With the growing number and complexity of passwords it has become an ugly trend to scribble banking passwords and credit card details in a text file (i.e. password.txt) or in a physical diary. Leading digital companies have recognized this problem and have introduced biometric (thumbprint) validation (e.g. Apple Pay), but it may take a few years for it to be adopted as the mainstream payment ecosystem. Till then, be very careful when you scribble your password on your mobile phone/laptop - because if you lose your mobile phone your banking credentials can also be compromised.

Quick tip: In case you do need to store your password in a text file, then please password protect the password file and rename the file to an obscure name instead of keeping it as password.txt

Mitigate Losses By Earmarking Only One Card For Online Purchases
Most of us have a habit of using multiple debit and credit cards for online purchases depending on the offers and discount offered by the particular bank. The risk associated here is that if a particular e-commerce portal or billing gateway gets hacked, then all your cards which you have entered on that particular platform are compromised.

Quick tip: In case you need to use more than one card on an e-commerce portal, then you may want to unclick the card saving option present on the e-commerce portal. In addition, ensure your bank has upgraded your credit/debit card to EMV (chip and pin) card.

Losing Your Mobile Phone May Result In Losing Your Money In Digital Wallet
If you lose your mobile phone, you may lose the money in your mobile wallet. As per the current regulation, mobile wallets are not required to follow additional factor authentication (also known as 2FA). This implies that if a person has access to your phone then he/she may be able to access/use the money in your mobile wallet.

Quick tip: Set a lock screen/password on your mobile phone so that even if your phone is stolen, your money in the mobile wallet may be protected.

Losing Your SIM Or SIM Being Swapped
Here your SIM gets swapped/cloned by the fraudsters without your knowledge. The result is your SMS/OTP and other notifications get directed to another mobile number thus making you oblivious of any of your financial transactions. Although telecom operators are trying to counter this malicious activity some incidents of this nature persist.

Quick tip: If you find that you SIM/mobile set is without signal for more than 15-30 minutes at a length then please call your telecom operator and get your SIM blocked immediately

Vishing/Phishing Fraud
You may get a call from a fraudulent person impersonating him/herself as the operator from your mobile wallet operator or a bank. He will give you some details regarding your transaction history and profile (to gain credibility and trust) and will either request you to initiate the transaction from your wallet or request you to share your PIN/OTP on the phone.

Quick tip: Never, never, never share your PIN/OTP/Password to anyone irrespective how genuine the caller may sound

Unused Balance May Be Forfeited
Lastly, please remember to utilize the balance in your mobile wallet. Regulation currently allows forfeiture of the mobile wallet balance in case of 6 months of inactivity (technically its 6 months from date of issuance). Therefore if you have opened a mobile wallet and haven't utilized the funds for a 6 months or longer then it may be as good as gone!