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Technology has revolutionized the way we do financial transactions, but at the same time, it has also exposed us to cyber fraud. As technology progresses, cybercriminals have also evolved their fraud mechanisms to take advantage of hapless customers. According to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), an average of 7,000 cybercrime complaints were registered per day in May 2024 and 85 per cent of them were financial online frauds.
Banks and financial institutions have for the same reason stepped up their cyber security measures. In India, we already have two-factor authentication to prevent the incidence of cyber fraud. Punjab National Bank has introduced a feature called ‘safety ring’ in its mobile and Internet Banking to provide an additional layer of security. What it essentially does is that it allows the customer to set up a daily transaction limit concerning term deposits (TD) on online closure or availing overdraft facility on TD up to the set limit amount. The limit set by the customer shall be a limit for consolidated digital channels limit up to which the customer can close the TD or avail overdraft facility on TD.
Customers can log in to internet banking or mobile banking, go to ‘emergency services’, and enter the limit amount for the safety ring. Then they need to enter the one-time password (OTP), and transaction password and finally answer two security questions. The safety ring can be modified after 24 hours online or immediately through a branch visit. However, one can cancel the limit only through branch visits to prevent any unauthorized online cancellations by scamsters.
Once it is set, the term deposit cannot be closed, withdrawn, or used for overdraft through any online channels and a bank visit is mandatory. This provides an additional safety net for these accounts.
However, customers should always follow basic safety procedures to keep their bank accounts secure. For example, they should not share any sensitive information with a third person as a bank will never call and ask for such information. Also, one should never share their OTP with anyone under any circumstances. Customers should also refrain from clicking on any link that comes to their email to do any financial transactions. These links can lead to a fictitious website that looks like the bank website and lead to financial loss. All online transactions should be conducted only through the bank’s official website.
