Valentine's Day- Be careful

February 14 or Valentine's Day is that day of the year when you are encouraged to express your love to the special person in your life. Love is such a powerful emotion that can blind even the most vigilant among us to fall into traps set online by unscrupulous elements. In this article, we will give you a few tips that will help you tread carefully on this Valentine's Day and could possibly save you from unwarranted heartaches.

Stay safe on social networking websites

As Valentine's Day is fast approaching, the number of Valentine's related apps on social networking websites such as Facebook have gone into hundreds. These applications offer their providers the opportunity of making money through affiliate marketing and also let them gather information about you. Because it is difficult to ascertain their true motives, it is best to steer clear of such apps, especially if they ask you to grant access to your private information on the social networking website.

Another way of conning unsuspecting people is by the means of apps that supposedly unlock hidden social network site functions, enticing people into going for giveaways or donating to bogus charities. If you see an anonymous message in your inbox with a subject similar to "AnonymousValentine", the only sensible thing to do is to delete the message because it may contain malware.

Stay away from phishing scams

Mails with marketing schemes aimed at this occasion suddenly start arriving in your inbox and most of them are aimed at getting the unwary user to divulge personal or financial details. This can be in the form of an email stating that the gift of flowers or candy you ordered cannot be delivered unless you log in and re-enter for confirmation, your financial details- usually your credit card number. Needless to say, the information you provide will end up with a scammer who can empty your credit card or bank account in just about no time. A better way to gift flowers or other items is to go to the online shopping portal of a well-known florist such as Ferns N Petals or for chocolates, to a known shopping website such as Moksha Chocolates.

Beware of e-card scams

E-cards have been around since the advent of the internet and these are the means of expressing love for many lovebirds. Scammers are well aware of this and therefore e-cards become a very viable means of conning people. This usually starts when you receive an email with a link to open an e-card sent to you by your loved one. Since you know that you have the world's best antivirus installed on your computer, you become careless enough to open the link. A website opens prompting you to do something like updating your Flash player by asking you to allow the installation of an ActiveX control. What actually happens is that a Trojan or backdoor worm gets installed, siphoning all your vital information for the perusal of the scammer. The best and safest way to protect you from such attacks is by not opening and simply deleting such emails.


Don't fall prey to online dating scams

For those who are yet to be bitten by the love bug, online dating sites pose a potential danger. What happens in this case is that the scammer creates a fake profile, which may have all the things you would want in a potential date and this will surely lure you in. When you actually contact the person, you will be more than likely be pleasantly surprised that the person is ready to adapt to however and whatever you want. Your likes and dislikes match perfectly and slowly but surely the scammer gains your trust. Soon enough you will lose your power of discretion and be enticed into actually falling prey to any financial scheme proposed by the supposedly "ideal date". This can be in the form of the scammer asking you to help him/her make emergency payment for a supposedly sick relative or to transfer funds to his/her accounts to let him/her buy tickets so that the two of you meet. You must use your common sense in such cases and being skeptical is always helpful.

Say no to unrealistic savings offers on gift items

Many online shopping sites feature gift articles that are priced at an unrealistically low price and many people fall prey to these ads. Sellers usually offer a piece of jewelry such as a diamond pendant or necklace with exquisite design for very low prices. The advertisements have photographs of the said items and they do look attractive. More often than not, these sellers are with unverified credentials. To make sure about the reputation of a seller, you must make sure that you read comments made by other people. Since even the comments can be forged, it is always better to play safe and not make the mistake of paying for these gift articles.

You should use your common sense to deduce that a gold ornament will cost at least as much as the price of the gold in it plus the cost of designing it. If the price comes to anything less than this, it is definitely a scam and you will surely not be gifting the same thing to your loved one as is claimed in the advertisement.

In conclusion, we would like to say that the best way to gift anything to your Valentine is to go to a shop, buy the gift and hand it over personally to him/her. The look on his/her face is something you would never want to miss.

Internet Fraud

A United Nations officer issued a cheque on his nationalized bank account. The cheque bounced despite his having deposited a big sum a few days back. He complained to the bank only to be told that Rs 75,000 was withdrawn in a number of transactions in Romania, a country he has never visited.The police suspect that the account was hacked on internet.

This is not the lone case of fraudulent activity in an Indian bank. Bank fraud is a big business in today's world. With more educational qualifications, banking is becoming impersonal and an increase in banking sector has given rise to this white collar crime. In many cases, the involvement of bank officials, as deliberate colluders, is also suspected.

The frauds have cost the depositors Rs 779 crore in 2004-05. It almost doubled to Rs 1381 crore the next year. In 2008-09, the figure rose to Rs 1883 crore. The figures given - Rs 4,043 crore in these deals - are again not conclusive. The actual figure may be much more. Both bank and forensic officials are baffled at this massive level of fraud. In 2004-05, there were 96 cases in which over Rs 1 crore was swindled away in each transaction. This rose to 212 in 2008-09.
Apparently no depositor is safe. Chances of swindling increase seemingly with the size of the bank. A multi-crore fake cheques scam estimated to the tune of Rs 52 crore was exposed in the Kanpur main branch of the State Bank of India last August. Seven bank officials, including one assistant general manager and two chief managers were suspended. The bank's audit team found that the fraud involved clearing of fake cheques in the bank account of an influential petrol pump owner. He is believed to have fled the country. This is stated to be the biggest fraud in the Kanpur-Lucknow region.

Cheque Book Scam

Woman swindled of 2.5 lakh rupees

Next time a cheque book is delivered to you through courier, ensure that it contains the prescribed number of cheques before accepting the consignment.

Here at Bhayander, Varsha mehta has to receive a cheque book which she requested for. She had it delivered to her but later on November 7, she receives an sms notifying that 2.5 lac rupees has been withdrawn from the joint account she is holding with her husband Nalin. When she contacted her Bank she was informed that the cheque issued from her account carried her signature.

On realising that her signature had been forged, Mehta lodged a complaint with the Bhayander police. During investigation, the police learnt that Mehta had received the cheque book from the Sigma Express Courier which has an office at Jesal Park in Bhayander.

The story behind is 'The courier boy Sukumar Nair along with three ICICI employees Chhotelal Jaiswal (28) from Thakur Village, Kandivli branch, Dinesh Chourasiya (25) from the Thakur Complex, Kandivli branch, and Ajay Prajapati (22) is responsible for the fraud. The courier boy manages to open the sealed parcel having the cheque book and after tearing a leaf or two would seal it again and deliver.

Nair then handed over the blank cheque to his accomplices, who deposited the cheque of Rs 2.5 lakh with Mehta’s forged signature into the account of a Charkop branch customer Nikita Khandekar. The money was then withdrawn from Khandekar’s account, again by forging her signature.This kind of fraud though older is still occurring due to the fact that we are not careful enough to verify whether the cheque leaves are in proper condition before receiving them.

The police have appealed to people to ensure that cheque books delivered through courier contains serially numbered leafs as mentioned as it is easy to overlook cheques torn from the middle of the book.

SBI Credit Card Scam

The Video posted here to be true is a disgrace to the Indian nation since the complaint made is on the State Bank of India which is believed to be Nation's pride. It pictures the way Banks cheat the customers( to be true they wont cheat, but the disclosure of risks will not be open) and I hope you get some awareness before giving your consent to any of the promotional offer you are offered particularly over Telephone. If you have the patience to go through the Terms and conditions first do that before giving your consent right away. Banks never disclose the underlying risks in any of the things they do,.. So, beware.

Australians a soft Target for Fraudulent Transactions

A recent survey conducted by a number of organisations all around the world indicate that Australia is a Land of Milk and Honey for the fraudsters. So what forms the basis of this theory, common let us have a glimpse. The first evidence for the above theory is from ACI, a provider of application softwares for electronic payments, surveyed some 2409 people globally out of which 310 responded were from Australia. The results of survey were as follows

• One in ten Australian respondents had faced card fraud once
• 2.58 percent were unlucky enough to lose funds twice.
• 1.29 percent claimed to have been a victim three times.
• 0.64 percent of them have experienced more than three occasions.

The irony here is that in the US and UK, 27 percent of respondents had been hit by card fraud in the past five years, compared to seven percent in Dubai, eight percent in Germany and 15 percent in China and Singapore.

Police say the 2009 figure will be massively higher than 2008, with more than 190 ATMs already subjected to skimming attacks so far this year. If this rate continues, 250 ATMs will have been compromised by year's end, compared with just a handful in 2008.

Top Romanian fraud officer, Inspector Elvis Tudose, says his country's crime gangs have found Australia in a big way this year because of a simple feature: the magnetic stripe on the back of cards that makes skimming far easier.

People's names, identity and card data are installed on the black strip on the back of cards. But new cards now offered by banks overseas contain a smartcard chip impregnated into the card, making skimming far harder.

"The criminals thought it would be a good idea to move their field of operations to Australia," Insp Tudose said. Eastern European criminals make multiple card copies and withdraw money using customer PINs.

Supt Hay says this allows criminals to be quick and deadly in cleaning out accounts
Australian Payments Clearing Association indicates incidence of credit card fraud rose from 18.6 for every 100,000 transactions in 2007 to 21.8 per 100,000 transactions in 2008. The incidence of debit card fraud dropped from 2.3 in 2007 to 1.7 in 2008 (again, for every 100,000 transactions.)