How to fortify yourself against online scams

[reader]

From Thai PBS World

Thailand was shocked recently by reports of online fraud victims claiming that hackers had secured access to their personal information through their charging cables, and used the stolen information to illegally transfer money out of their bank accounts.

How to avoid online attacks

After consulting with the Thai Bankers’ Association, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) clarified that the online fraud cases had not been caused by scammers hacking their devices through their charging cables in public places. The victims had downloaded trojan applications without knowing that hackers use malware to take control of their mobile phone remotely. The BOT and banks have issued guidelines, including urging mobile banking users to be cautious about applications they download to their devices.

The BOT advised users to download applications only from official stores such as Google Play store and App Store.

The central bank advised users not to click on links they receive on SMS or Line messages if they are not sure about the source of the message. The BOT issued the advisory amid a sharp spike in phishing messages sent by hackers via SMS, Line and email to lure receivers by tempting them with bank loans or financial rewards from banks or other institutions.

The BOT issued the following guidelines to improve safety:

– Mobile banking clients should update their mobile banking app or set up their mobile phones to automatically update the latest version of mobile app. The update is usually designed to prevent mobile phones from being hacked remotely, and upgrade their cybersecurity.

– Mobile banking users are advised to avoid using unsecure mobile phones for financial transactions. For example, phones that turn off root/jailbreak, which will allow any application download, or phones that use outdated operating software.

– Victims are urged to provide accurate information to concerned parties in order to timely address the issues. Should they find unusual transactions, they should contact the bank’s call centers or bank branches immediately in order to investigate the transactions.

The BOT also issued guidelines to banks that if customers are not directly responsible for providing personal information to hackers, then the banks have to compensate the customers for any loss incurred within five days.

Continues at

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/how-to-fortify-yourself-against-online-scams/

[PeterRS]

The above is a reason why I refuse to use mobile phone banking.

[macaroni21]

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

The above is a reason why I refuse to use mobile phone banking.

Not just mobile phone banking, surely. Even if you use your laptop, there's a similar risk of trojans and phishing. So you'd have to avoid all online banking. But then how to pay? Either credit cards or cheques? Credit cards have their own problems (cloned cards and skimming), and increasingly vendors don't want to accept cheques or cash....

[PeterRS]

18 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Even if you use your laptop, there's a similar risk of trojans and phishing. So you'd have to avoid all online banking.

I only use my Apple desktop computer for on line banking with scam apps recommended by the banks. I've recently had one problem but it is not related to a scam or phishing.

[TMax]

I never do online banking as such, I even had to convince my bank to stop trying to push it on to me and prefer to do any banking face to face at my local branch. I do pay some bills with credit card online but that's about all and only using the links I have already bookmarked and know are correct (I keep no information on my devices that could lead to any bank or bank account), the risk with that is that I may lose some if I get ripped off but they won't / shouldn't get access to my bank accounts. Of course I might have to rethink that if I were to move overseas to live but until then it'll stay as is. Oh and I never click on links sent to me either by email or sms messages.