5 Ways To Protect Your Bank Accounts in 2022 was written for PlayLouder by a contributing author. Please note that contributing opinions are that of the author. They are not always in strict alignment with my own opinions. –Joe.
Banking fraud is a real concern for people all over the world. In fact, customers lost an estimated $5.8 billion to fraud last year.
This fraud statistic represents a 70 percent increase when compared with 2020. It also reveals why it is imperative to take steps to protect your bank account and make sure you do not become the next victim.
With that being said, below, we are going to take you through five of the most important steps you need to follow to keep your bank account protected in 2022.
1. Use a bank with an advanced fraud detection service
There is only one place to begin when it comes to protecting your bank account, and this is by banking with a company that uses an advanced fraud detection service. Tools like this are designed to alert you whenever there is suspicious activity that could indicate someone unauthorized has gained access to your bank account or is trying to.
Companies like SEON can help to prevent banking fraud and offer advanced fraud detection solutions that go way beyond some of the more simple products on the market today. They use a range of different tools to spot any problematic behavior.
This can often be split up into four different areas, which are as follows:
Behavior analytics
The whole customer activity will be screened, from the moment they sign up for online banking to the minute that they make a purchase and checkout online. Data is run via API through velocity rules and scoring algorithms, with fraudulent behavior being detected before it harms your business and your customers.
Precise risk scores
Risk scores provide you with a basis to make more intelligent decisions for your business. Thresholds can be adjusted manually to block suspicious users automatically and manage false positive rates as you see fit.
Social media lookup
You can use data points from more than 35 social media platforms to perform in-depth background checks.
Tailored industry trends
Businesses and banks can deploy hundreds of risk rules tailored to their specific industry risk vendors. Custom rules can be imported and tested on a confusion matrix. Detection accuracy will be greatly improved.
This represents the sort of advanced tools that banks should be using today to make sure that their customers are protected. However, not all financial companies have the same stringent and thorough approach, so this is something you need to consider carefully when deciding who you should bank with.
2. Never log in to your bank account on shared WiFi or a shared computer
If you are on vacation, you may be tempted to use a hotel computer or free public WiFi to check your bank account and see how much money you have got left. This is not a good idea. Instead, it is always much better to use a bit of your own data and connect to your own private network on your phone, rather than using shared WiFi.
Shared computers and devices can be even worse. They can often have keyloggers or viruses installed that will steal your data while you are typing it in. It is also pretty much impossible to tell whether a shared computer is secure or not. Instead, do not take the risk. It is better to be safe than sorry, right?
3. Get into the habit of checking your online banking every day
Our next piece of advice is to make sure that you are checking your online bank account on a daily basis. You can make this part of your morning return. It only takes a minute or two, and it can prevent a whole world of problems.
After all, if your bank account has been compromised, the sooner you discover this, the better.
If you check your bank account each morning, you should be able to quickly spot any issues. This means you can take preventative action, such as blocking your bank account or moving your money, until the issue is resolved.
By checking your bank account frequently, you are reducing the amount of time that a criminal has to steal your money and cause maximum damage.
There are also a few other things to keep in mind. For example, banks have implemented timeframes with regards to how long you have available to file a dispute about a transaction. If you rarely check your online bank account, you could face some issues in this regard.
Furthermore, if you use your debit card often, but you do not check your bank account regularly, it can be easy for transactions and fees to start getting lost. This means that you could potentially end up missing a fraudulent charge on your account.
Ultimately, it is going to make your life a lot easier if you keep on top of everything and check your bank account on a regular basis.
4. Secure the log-in process as much as possible
You need to make sure that it is as difficult as possible for someone to breach your bank account. There are two things you need to do here:
- Set-up multi-factor authentication
- Get creative with your passwords
Multi-factor authentication
It is vital to set up multi-factor authentication on any sensitive platform you use, including your online banking.
What multi-factor authentication means is that you will basically need to go through an extra verification step on top of inputting your password.
There are a number of different approaches here, such as answering a security question. However, the most popular solution at the moment is to receive a code via phone call, email, text message, or push notification.
You will then need to input this code in order to gain access to your bank account.
Creative passwords
Not only do you need to add an extra security layer when logging into your bank account, but you need to make sure that you are creative in terms of the passwords you use.
You should never use the same password for numerous accounts or websites. If you do, once a hacker has guessed your password for one platform, they will have access to all of the accounts you use with the same password.
So, if you use the same password for Facebook as you do your online bank account, all someone needs to do is hack into your Facebook and then they will have access to your online banking too.
Aside from this, you need to make sure that all of your passwords are long and creative. There are three key rules to follow here:
- Make sure your passwords are impersonal. Do not use any full words that are associated with you, such as your pet’s name or your birthday, or any common words, such as ‘hello’ or ‘password.’
- Passwords also need to be diverse. They should include a mixture of special characters, numbers, and letters.
- Finally, your passwords also need to be long. Make sure that they are a minimum of 12 characters.
Not only do you need to follow these three rules, but you need to change your password on a periodic basis as well. Ideally, you should do this every three months. This may seem like a bit of a hassle, but it is certainly worth it if it means keeping your bank account secure.
5. Keep your data private
Last but not least, one of the most effective ways of protecting your data against an account takeover scheme is by keeping all of your account information private. If you do need to share this data, it is imperative to make sure that the receiving website, person, or business is secure and familiar.
Furthermore, you should never keep confidential data, such as your debit card or password, in an accessible location, such as your smartphone or a diary you keep in your handbag.
Instead, we highly recommend that you use a secure password application. The likes of LastPass and 1Password are great for this. These systems will store your personal information in a secure, encrypted format, and they will warn you if there has been a possible data leak.
No matter what sort of tool you use, make sure that you update the software whenever you are prompted to so that you have the latest and most secure version.
Start protecting your bank account today
So there you have it: five different ways to protect your bank account in 2022. From using a fraud detection service to implementing multi-factor authentication so that it is more difficult to log in to your account, there are many different ways you can go about this.
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula, though, and that is why you need to make sure you are using a number of different methods to give your account as much security as possible.
