What should I do if my bank account has been hacked and where to file a Complaint?
Just dealt with the bank account hacked situation? Perplexed and disturbed?
Will you get back your bank account’s hacked money Back in your account?
Is the bank liable to give you back your stolen money?
What legal action should be taken?
This publication might be of some help to you –
Encountering a sudden attack on your finances especially when they are hard-earned can be extremely frightening and painful and could leave a person perplexed and extremely disturbed.
What can you do if your bank account has been hacked?
Notify the bank and right away block your card –
The first thing to do if your bank account has been hacked is to quickly report it to your bank and block your bank credit and debit card.
Please Note – In case of online transactions, you have a fair chance of recovering/blocking the transaction if you act within 24 hours from the date and time of the fraudulent transaction.
Take NOTICE – HOW and WHEN and WHILE or AFTER doing WHAT your bank account got hacked –
If your bank account was hacked immediately after you’ve done some online transaction from your PC then quickly scan and clean your PC with the latest antivirus scanner. This is essential to get rid of any rootkit or key logger that may have been installed on the PC that resulted in compromising your login details and got transmitted to the hacker.
Change your bank app and net banking login details –
· Reset your login password,
· Security questions and answers,
· Pin of the bank app or net banking login credentials.
Report the fraud to the right authority in the bank.
File a Complaint Against the fraud–
After alerting your bank about the fraud you should lodge a First Information Report (FIR) or a complaint at a Cyber Cell.
You can also file an online complaint.
Documents required to file a complaint –
For online transactions related complaints you need the following documents –
1. Bank statement of last six months from the concerned bank.
2. Make a copy of SMS’s received related to the alleged bank transactions.
3. A copy of your ID proof and address proof as shown in the bank records.
In net banking/ATM complaints, you need the following documents to file a complaint –
1. Bank statement of last six months from the concerned bank.
2. Copy of SMS’s received related to the alleged bank transactions.
3. A copy of your ID proof and address proof as shown in the bank records.
A point to OBSERVE –
It’s often observed when a hacker hacks a bank account and has access to the user’s login name, pin and password they start making online purchases and transferring money immediately.
Their motive is to extract the maximum amount of money out of your bank before you could block the credit or debit card or change the bank login details.
Besides following the above-mentioned steps it is very important to take a close and detailed look at the fraudulent transaction happened.
Whenever a transaction has been made the bank provides very limited but important information of the date, time and the merchant ID on which the transaction was performed. For example– if you have made a purchase of any product online via an e-commerce website such as Amazon or Flipkart your bank carries the merchant ID of such website.
The key is to immediately speak to the designated authority of the merchant within 24 hours giving details of the transaction that was fraudulent.
Always make sure – that you make purchases and online transactions only through trusted and reputed merchants/websites because no merchant would like to do business with a card that was stolen.
Hence, the merchant will assist you in blocking the transaction and revert the amount. But, the possibility of you getting your money back is only when the merchant has not delivered the goods or processed the transaction completely which usually takes more than 24 hours.
Is your bank liable if your account gets hacked? If yes, how much is the bank liable to pay you?
Here’s what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says and fixes liability if your bank account is hacked –
After your money was stolen from your bank, whether the loss will be borne by you or by your bank depends on the investigation that clarifies on whose fault or negligence the bank has been hacked and when, by what time the matter was reported by you.
In all cases, you are required to immediately report your bank about any unauthorised banking transaction that has taken place.
The banks have already been mandated by the RBI to collect mobile numbers of the customers so that SMS alerts are sent immediately to the customers after all electronic transactions.
If the fraud happened due to the bank’s negligence –
The RBI says if the fraudulent transaction has been found to be on part of the bank then you being the customer of the bank need not worry as the bank is liable to borne the entire loss taken place. Your liability is zero in such a case.
If the loss happened due to your negligence –
If the fraud is found to be happened due to your negligence then the entire loss will be borne by you until the unauthorised transaction is reported to the bank.
In a scenario where neither you nor your bank is at fault –
There can be situations when the fault lies within the system and neither its the banks nor the customer’s fault.
In such a scenario the customer‘s liability will be zero if he/she reports the fraudulent transaction occurred to the bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the bank about the unauthorised transaction.
What if you report the incident a little late to the bank?
If you report the fraudulent transaction to the bank with a delay of 4 to 7 working days then the maximum liability of the customer ranges from Rs.5000 to Rs.25,000 depending on the type of account.
If you report the incident to your bank after the period of seven working days, your liability will depend on the banks policy.
The bank is required to credit (shadow reversal) the amount involved in the unauthorised electronic transaction to the customer’s account within 10 working days from the date of notification provided by the customer.
Why you? What have increased the chances of your being the victim of fraud?
The following can be the possible reasons –
You regularly make banking transactions through public internet –
Conducting banking transactions through your tablet, computer or a smartphone in public puts your bank information at risk.
Although the banks do their best to encrypt the data that is transmitted, but the hackers still find ways to retrieve your login information to use it at a later date.
Unless extremely necessary, always avoid conducting banking transactions online in a public setting.
Using wireless Internet that isn’t password protected –
If you are somebody who visits coffee shops frequently and logs in online through the free internet services provided by them or any type of wireless internet connection that is not password protected, increases the chances of your device catching viruses and malware and making it easy for hackers to break-in to your device because hackers love unsecured networks as they are easy to access and provide them with a great number of people to steal information from.
Always avoid logging into wireless connections which are not protected by a password.
Purchase software that will encrypt the data on your computer that enables your device to be protected in the event of someone does try to hack and access your personal information.
When your information is protected through encryption it makes it difficult for hackers to break-in that increases the chances that they will ignore your data.
You regularly use ATMs in sketchy locations –
Sometimes card skimmer devices are placed at ATMs and other places where you swipe your debit or credit card. Scammers make use of the device to steal your card information and make a copy of it.
What is Credit Card Skimming and how does it work?
Credit card skimming is a type of credit card theft where the hackers use a small device that reads the magnetic stripe on your credit or debit card when you slide it into a card reader at an ATM, a gas station or any other place where you’ve used your card to purchase something.
The skimmer then stores the card number, expiration date and cardholder’s name. These stripes even appear on chip-enabled cards.
Card skimming is the way hackers use to steal your identity and personal information to commit identity fraud.
If at all you suspect the card reader you are about to use to make a transaction has a skimmer on it, jiggle the card reader to make sure it’s securely attached to the machine.
With this, reconcile your bank statements to make sure there isn’t any suspicious activity taken place.
A point to note – Thieves are sneaky and smart at the same time and they can use your card information to steal smaller amounts first because they are hoping that such small amounts will not be noticed by the victims.
If you notice any suspicious activity call your bank and report it to the bank immediately or you may be liable for all charges on your account.
The most common places for card skimming are the following locations –
Gas stations –
Gas stations can be one of the favourite locations of hackers as self-service gas stations have such high amounts of debit card activity that signals a very rewarding proposition for card skimmers.
Unlike bank ATMs, it is actually difficult to tell whether or not there is a card skimmer at the payment terminals of the gas stations, people mostly don’t even notice something wrong.
Standalone ATMs –
ATM’s that are located in dimly-lit locations left alone with little or no surveillance or tucked inside the corner of a store are the prime targets for card skimmers
In such places, the criminals get an opportunity to attach and remove card skimmers without anyone noticing it.
Restaurants –
Card skimming can also be carried out by seemingly friendly people. For example- the restaurant employee who’s being overly nice to you might be carrying portable card skimmers to steal card information when customers handover the cards to pay the bill. So beware.
Shopping at a major retailer who has had its data breached by cybercriminals –
If at all you have shopped at a retailer that has suffered a data breach and even if you may not have been impacted yet, your information probably still is exposed to the scammer.
Some scammers wait several months before they attempt their next fraud.
Consider changing your debit or credit card information if you suspect your information has been stolen or compromised.
You opened an Internet link through a text message on your phone from an unknown number –
In today’s time acquiring your phone number is not difficult especially if you have your number displayed on public social media platforms or anywhere else on the web.
Hackers find your phone numbers and then send a fake text with a web link that claims to provide some type of exclusive deal or bargain in order to allure you to click on the fake link that opens your phone to allow the hacker to hack your personal data from it so it is extremely essential for you to take notice whenever you receive a text from unfamiliar numbers and always avoid clicking on any links from random numbers.
If you notice an unfamiliar or any random number immediately block the number and delete any text you receive to ensure you or someone else using your phone does not click on the link.
So what’s the way out? How can you protect yourself, your information and your future?
Check your passwords – avoid making these common mistakes with passwords while setting passwords –
Many people throughout the world keep easy passwords and they also use the same password for multiple accounts and sites which makes it easy for hackers to access your information.
Always keep in mind the ground rules for passwords- that are –
- The password has to contain a random collection of letters uppercase and lowercase, numbers and symbol
- Your password must be eight characters or longer
- And most importantly you should create a unique password for every account.
Keep track of all the transactions taking place in your bank account –
People own at least one bank account and sometimes more than one, plus credit accounts and other depositories.
It is important to keep a track of these accounts and all the transactions taking place in order to avoid the hackers from sneaking in.
Always turn off automatic sharing on your computer as you may not even be aware but you might be allowing someone else to easily access information from your PC.
Turn off automatic sharing before you begin to use your computer.
Turn off your computer’s Wi-Fi –
When you are not operating the internet make sure to turn off your computer’s Wi-Fi to prevent someone else from sneaking their way onto your PC.
Know your credit score –
Your credit score can provide you with a lot of information about the hackers. If you suspect if you notice anything suspicious on them like credit card accounts that you didn’t open, immediately alert which have a Credit bureau is reporting it and request them to freeze your credit card that will make it tough for the hackers to access your personal information unless you ask the bureau to unfreeze your card.
