stay safe from financial scams and frauds!

Your mobile phone is a convenient way to manage your banking transactions as you receive all your account-related alerts and one-time-passwords (OTP) on it. This is why it is extremely important for you to take complete precautions while transacting through your mobile.

Listed below are simple steps to help you avoid compromising your details to any online scams like Phishing, SIM Duplication, Vishing etc. and to avert misuse of your mobile services:-
•
Do not share your personal details like father’s name, mother’s name, date of birth, address, mobile bill (copy or original) or last mobile transaction with an unknown person
•
Do not handover your phone to an unknown person
•
Do not share your IDs and address proof with an unknown person
•
In case of any service disruption immediately contact the call centre and report the issue
•
Always check the service alerts sent by bank/telecom company
•
Do not download any unauthorized application on your mobile to make payments

ATM cards to have more security features

Business Standard

ATM cards issued by the public sector banks are found to be highly susceptible to fraud as they are made of inferior technology, according to the banking ombudsman of Andhra Pradesh.
“The cyber crime wing of the police department has been receiving 4-5 complaints every day involving impersonation and most of these cases pertain to the cards issued by the public sector banks,” N Krishna Mohan, banking ombudsman and chief general manager of Reserve Bank of India, said on Wednesday.
According to him, starting November 1, 2013, the RBI has made it mandatory for all banks to implement a second factor authentication, in which the banks need to provide another password unique to each transaction, and to replace the magnetic stripe that stores data of the customer with an electronic chip-based card.
This is to protect the customer from the card-related fraud, which mostly happens when the information on the card, including the account number and the password are stolen. About 18 per cent of complaints reported at the Ombudsman office is of this nature, he said.

@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@

h4. stay safe from financial scams and frauds!

Your mobile phone is a convenient way to manage your banking transactions as you receive all your account-related alerts and one-time-passwords (OTP) on it. This is why it is extremely important for you to take complete precautions while transacting through your mobile.

Listed below are simple steps to help you avoid compromising your details to any online scams like Phishing, SIM Duplication, Vishing etc. and to avert misuse of your mobile services:-
•
Do not share your personal details like father’s name, mother’s name, date of birth, address, mobile bill (copy or original) or last mobile transaction with an unknown person
•
Do not handover your phone to an unknown person
•
Do not share your IDs and address proof with an unknown person
•
In case of any service disruption immediately contact the call centre and report the issue
•
Always check the service alerts sent by airtel
•
Do not download any unauthorized application on your mobile to make payments

you reach out to your banker to understand the precautions that will help prevent any fraudulent transaction from your bank account.

Always check the service alerts sent by airtel …..:P

PEOPLE WEAR MASKS.
SO DO WEBSITES.

To ensure you’re not transacting on a cloned website,
go to secured sites with ‘https’

*Be aware. Protect your money.
Some proactive measures taken by SBI Cards to ensure your credit card safety:
EMV Chip enabled credit cards
24X7 monitoring for early detection of frauds
Instant real time alerts for irregular transactions & proactive card blocking
Verified by VISA & MasterCard SecureCode enabled online transactions

Take note (or not) ……and take care!

This Morning in High Street near to HSBC a male and female have approached a woman and told her that she had dropped £10 on the floor. They have picked the note up for her and insisted that they put it back in her purse. Luckily the woman did not fall for this scam which normally results in a bank card being taken while the note is being put back in the purse or wallet. The offenders were heard speaking in a European accent.

We have seen this type of distraction technique usually used in Supermarket car parks across the County. Elderly persons are usually the target after they have used a bank card to pay for shopping at the till. A person in the queue will glance over the shoulder while the pin number is typed in. A second person or persons will distract the shopper when they are returning to the car to put shopping away.

The favoured distraction technique is the £10 note on the floor. Another method is when the shopper is asked for directions by an offender who will then open a very large map out. This enables a second person to go through a handbag or steal wallet while their attention is diverted.

Anyone who witnesses this type of distraction should call Police immediately. If you have an elderly neighbour or relative please pass this information on to prevent them being a victim.

Amrit Kaur: Aged 80, she’s India’s newest billionaire

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20…

Biometric data policy will be India’s answer to UK’s stiff visa rules

http://newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/B…

@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@

Amrit Kaur: Aged 80, she’s India’s newest billionaire

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20…

Hmmmm

A Canadian dentist, Dr Michael Zuk, had bought the extracted tooth of the late British pop musician John Lennon from his maid for $ 31000, and now he wants to extract DNA from this tooth and bring Lennon back to life by cloning. This news hit the headlines, since Lennon was a member of the famous quartet, the Beatles, who were a rage in the 1960s and 70s.

Can this be done? Can Lennon (or anyone else for that matter) be cloned? The answer is yes. A clone is a cell or an organism that is produced asexually from an ancestor, to which it is genetically identical. Thus the clone of Lennon, produced today, will be genetically the same Beatle John Lennon.

How is this done? The procedure was first illustrated by another Brit, John Gurdon, just about the time the Beatles began their career. Gurdon isolated the nucleus (which contains all its genes in the form of DNA) from the skin cell (not tooth) of a frog and kept it aside. Next he took the egg of another frog and inactivated its cell nucleus containing its DNA using irradiation. This egg was now fertilized in the lab by inserting the skin DNA of the first frog. In time, out came a tadpole.

What Gurdon did was not the usual ‘sperm meets egg, fertilization happens and out comes the baby’ procedure. The frogs did not mate sexually, because when they do the male frog injects not its skin cells into the egg but its sperm cells. Sperm cells are a set of what are called germ lines, used specifically for reproduction. (Egg cells too, of the female, are likewise germ line cells). DNA in the Gurdon experiment here came not from sperm cells but from the nucleus of its skin cell (which is called a somatic cell). What Gurdon did was in effect generate a clone of Frog 1, which gave its somatic cell DNA. The tadpole is thus its clone. Frog 2 did not contribute any of its genes to the baby; its egg was simply an empty reaction vessel.

Moving further to the 1990s and to mammals, Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh did a similar cloning of sheep. He and his associates took a somatic cell from the udder of a white-faced ewe (call her Molly), isolated its nucleus and kept it aside. Next they took the egg cell of a black-faced ewe (call her Polly) and removed its nucleus (and thus all of its genetic content). Now they inserted Molly’s nucleus into Polly’s emptied egg cell and made the embryo. Next they brought a third ewe (call her Holly) and, using her as the surrogate, placed the above embryo into her womb. In time came the white-faced lamb that they named Dolly. (Considering that her genetic provenance came from the mammary glands of Molly, Dolly was named after the amply bosomed actress and model Dolly Parton). (For the inquisitive, note that all of them, Molly, Polly, Holly and Dolly are female. The only male DNA of Dolly came from Molly’s father’s DNA contained in her somatic cells. Here then is a set of posers: is Molly both Dolly’s mother and sister? Can Polly not claim motherhood? And what about Holly, is she just an incubator?)

From Lamb to Lennon

If we can clone frogs and sheep, why not humans? The technology is available and standardized. Michael Zuk is not the first to think of it. Indeed, immediately after Dolly was cloned, a reporter apparently went to the Vatican and asked a Cardinal there: “Father, we hear that a cathedral in Turin has the shroud that covered Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. What is your reaction if someone were to isolate any DNA of Jesus that is still left in the shroud, clone him and bring him alive?” The father’s reply was simple yet telling. He said: “my son, you would have cloned Jesus’s body, not his soul.”

Man does not live by body alone

Leaving apart several other controversial issues related to human cloning, the above answer captures the utter futility of cloning humans. Man does not live by body alone, he needs his brain too. DNA makes the body and the hardware of the brain. But what goes into the brain is interaction with the external world. Culture is not coded in our DNA. Experience, education, environment — all these matter. John Lennon of the 1960s was not only a product of his parents but was also immersed in the world of his time, absorbing from it and giving to it. If the clone Lennon of the 2020s were to sing “I want to hold your hand,” would it be the same as what the original Lennon sang? The Cardinal has given us the cardinal answer.

Achilles wrote:

@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@

Amrit Kaur: Aged 80, she’s India’s newest billionaire

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20…

Hmmmm

ab kya fayda…jawani dhal gyi

Superstitions and Scientific Temper

Sadhguru

Many look for lucky stars, planets, numbers– all kinds of stuff. In this process of looking and waiting for things to happen, things they could have easily created for themselves are completely lost.

With every aspect of life, it is you who has to make it happen. Your peace and your turmoil, joy and misery, devil and god are all created by you. When you live by chance, you also live in fear and anxiety.

When you live by intent and capability, it does not matter what is happening or not happening; at least you are in control of what is happening to you. It is a more stable life.

A few years ago, a lady I knew was preparing for an important business meeting. In Tamil Nadu, many people believe that when you start your car in the morning, you should not start in reverse gear. Otherwise your whole life will go into reverse gear. So, in the morning they always move it a little forward first. So this lady wanted to move the car forward before reversing it out of the garage. In all her anxiety and fear, while trying to move it a few inches forward, she jerked the clutch and drove the car straight into the wall!

Instead of creating the necessary internal and external atmosphere so that the right kind of situation can happen, we always look for something else to make things happen. How you experienced today within yourself is definitely yours. It is not decided by the superstitions you believe in. It simply depends on how sensibly, intelligently and with awareness you live life.

So, is there no truth to superstitions? Not necessarily. Most of them have some scientific basis, but they have been badly distorted over time. Over generations, the science component has gotten lost and become something else.

Moreover, today, because of political and other kinds of dominance, we have come to the conclusion that if something comes from the West it is science, if it comes from the East it is superstition.

For example, in the last few years, a phenomenal amount of research has gone into water. Scientists are saying that water has memory. It remembers whatever it comes in touch with. Suppose I take a glass of water in my hand, look at it in a certain way and give it to you, well-being will come to you. If I look at it another way and give it to you, you will fall sick. Our grandmothers always told us we must receive food and water only from people who love and care for us. When your grandmother tells you this, it is superstition; if you hear it from a western scientist, you take it seriously.

Many of the things we have always said in this culture are being discovered today through modern scientific research. We have known these things because this is not a culture which evolved out of compulsions of living. This is a culture which was evolved consciously by sages and saints. There is immense scientific value in it.

Everything – from how you should sit, stand and eat – was designed according to what is best for human well-being. Unfortunately, the spiritual culture we see today has, in many ways, been broken and distorted by long spells of poverty, ignorance and lack of contextual understanding. Still, the basic ethos of the spiritual process is not destroyed, nor can it be destroyed. It is time we reap the benefits of this profound tradition.

@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@

h3. Superstitions and Scientific Temper

Sadhguru



Many look for lucky stars, planets, numbers– all kinds of stuff. In this process of looking and waiting for things to happen, things they could have easily created for themselves are completely lost.

With every aspect of life, it is you who has to make it happen. Your peace and your turmoil, joy and misery, devil and god are all created by you. When you live by chance, you also live in fear and anxiety.

When you live by intent and capability, it does not matter what is happening or not happening; at least you are in control of what is happening to you. It is a more stable life.

A few years ago, a lady I knew was preparing for an important business meeting. In Tamil Nadu, many people believe that when you start your car in the morning, you should not start in reverse gear. Otherwise your whole life will go into reverse gear. So, in the morning they always move it a little forward first. So this lady wanted to move the car forward before reversing it out of the garage. In all her anxiety and fear, while trying to move it a few inches forward, she jerked the clutch and drove the car straight into the wall!

Instead of creating the necessary internal and external atmosphere so that the right kind of situation can happen, we always look for something else to make things happen. How you experienced today within yourself is definitely yours. It is not decided by the superstitions you believe in. It simply depends on how sensibly, intelligently and with awareness you live life.

So, is there no truth to superstitions? Not necessarily. Most of them have some scientific basis, but they have been badly distorted over time. Over generations, the science component has gotten lost and become something else.

Moreover, today, because of political and other kinds of dominance, we have come to the conclusion that if something comes from the West it is science, if it comes from the East it is superstition.

For example, in the last few years, a phenomenal amount of research has gone into water. Scientists are saying that water has memory. It remembers whatever it comes in touch with. Suppose I take a glass of water in my hand, look at it in a certain way and give it to you, well-being will come to you. If I look at it another way and give it to you, you will fall sick. Our grandmothers always told us we must receive food and water only from people who love and care for us. When your grandmother tells you this, it is superstition; if you hear it from a western scientist, you take it seriously.

Many of the things we have always said in this culture are being discovered today through modern scientific research. We have known these things because this is not a culture which evolved out of compulsions of living. This is a culture which was evolved consciously by sages and saints. There is immense scientific value in it.

Everything – from how you should sit, stand and eat – was designed according to what is best for human well-being. Unfortunately, the spiritual culture we see today has, in many ways, been broken and distorted by long spells of poverty, ignorance and lack of contextual understanding. Still, the basic ethos of the spiritual process is not destroyed, nor can it be destroyed. It is time we reap the benefits of this profound tradition.

Well said. Superb Sadhguru, I always like to listen to him. And one of my wishes is to be on the kailas manasarovar trip wtih his group

Thnx for sharing barood bhai

good1…bt hw these scientifically proved practices originally came into being??
is it just by chance that few among enormous ones were later on proved scientifically & were used to project whole group of these practices having some or other scientific basis by opportunists,,most commonly by babas, gurus, tantriks….like rapist asaram….

WHAT’S IN A TERMINOLOGY?

B.N.BHARATH,

Shakespeare would have remarked, “What’s there in a name? A rose smells as sweet as it is” in the magnum opera, ‘Romeo and Juliet’. That was centuries ago. Lots of water has flown in the Thames River since then. And lots of water has also flowed in River Brahmaputra, though China is building dams across the river, since then. Over the years, we have added several new words, jargons, terminologies in our daily communications, just as new technologies have arrived in all walks of life, including Banking.

Thinking out of the Box:-

Ordinary prudence in doing Banking is no more sufficient, these days. From the good old days of ‘balancing Books’ we have taken several strides, all through ‘Thinking out of the box’. Routine banking is not adequate any more. One needs to first think of a box and then, of course, start thinking out of that box!

Lateral Recruitment:-
We used to have the ‘plain vanilla’ Recruitment Boards recruiting Clerical staff and Probationary Officers. Direct recruitment to higher scale of officers or the Lateral Recruitment, as is being called, was never heard of during those days. The debate on the pros and cons of such recruitment is never ending like the question which has come first, the hen or the egg or like the never ending soap opera TV serials!

Door to door tenor:-
Usually loan tenure is referred to as tenor, whereas new generation private sector banks have coined a new word, ‘Door to door tenor’. One just wonders how this jargon came to usage. Perhaps, as these banks first knock at the doors of each and every house, pestering them to avail one or the other loan, they would have invented this magic word! Later on too they run from pillar to post or knock door to door of these borrowers, to recover the loan, which by then would have become NPA!

Taking a call:-

These days, if you decide on something, definitely, you are considered as old-fashioned. You need to ‘take a call’ on that, which will be more appropriate. Now is the time when you need to take a call on giving new loan or you need to take a call on calling up the loan! Definitely, you need to take a call on adapting to the new surroundings and take a call on accepting the new terminologies.

*Core Competence:- *

Accepting deposits, giving loans etc. continue to be our bread and butter despite several avenues in Cross Selling. But to make it more focused, a Management Guru has coined a new terminology, ‘core competence’. Of course, whether it is core competence or sheer competence, we bankers, continue to work hard burning the mid night oil, in the process.

*Escalate:- *

n case, any one has any problem or any grievance, for taking up the issue to higher ups, these days we ‘escalate’ the issue. Obviously just referring the matter to higher up will not suffice the purpose. You need to ‘escalate’ and ‘flag’ the issue! Perhaps with the advent of escalators in Airports, Malls etc. this word would have been invented.

Bottom of the pyramid:-

One need not go to Egypt to understand the intricacies of Pyramid. We just wonder, why despite our government’s sincere efforts in series of development activities, poverty alleviation programs and different Bank Loan schemes to poor section of the society, the lesser privileged people or the people at the bottom of the pyramid continue to suffer. When will our millions of poor people at the bottom of the pyramid rise to the top? Well … we may have to dig the pyramid to find the answer in the bottom.

Inclusive Growth and Financial Literacy: Spate of employment generation schemes, series of government sponsored or subsidized schemes, Five Year Plans after Plans, etc. have still not brought the desired result, that is, uplift of the poor and downtrodden. Let us hope and wish that at least after coining the new terminologies like ‘inclusive growth’, ‘financial literacy’ etc. the deserved ones get the benefits to the fullest extent.

*Overall we find that there is a ‘paradigm shift’ in our thinking prowess. The ‘corporate concern’ of all institutions is gaining momentum in this globalised competitive world. This has forced each one to think of generating income from different ‘verticals’ speaking about the ‘bulk deposits’ and ‘big ticket’ loans. In a nutshell, I have tried to ‘think out of the box’ in penning err….. in typing this article. If there are any more terminologies, you may kindly ‘flag’ it to me. I will ‘take a call’ on ‘escalating’ it to the editor/admin! *

Will chip-based cards succeed in reducing credit card fraud?

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20…

E-banking fraud: Rs 22L stolen from
firm’s bank account in two days

Acting on a complaint lodged by the owner of Rheno International Agencies, J V R Bhatta (74), the Koperkhairane police have registered a cheating case under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and sections 66, 66C and 43A of the IT Act. The cyber crime cell is conducting a parallel investigation into the case.
Bhatta, who is a former mediaperson, lives in Vashi’s sector-9.
Assistant police inspector SR Avchat said the modus operandi was baffling, but they are confident of nabbing the accused.
“The company has a current account in Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Koperkhairane branch. As the firm’s CEO, Manu Bhardwaj, receives a text alert for any bank transaction, the hacker first approached a mobile service provider’s gallery and claimed that he was Bhardwaj and had lost his SIM card. As the hacker applied for a new SIM card, the previous card was blocked and Bhardwaj did hot receive any calls or text alerts about the 14 fraudulent transactions. The hacker then hacked into the company’s e-banking account and made seven transactions each on August 23 and 24, for a total of Rs 22,86,860,” he said.
“The fraud came to light on August 25, when Bhardwaj visited the mobile service provider in Koperkhairane to inquire about his blocked SIM card. He learnt that someone had submitted forged documents and applied for a new SIM card on his name. When he checked with the bank, the online fraud was revealed,” said Avachat.
Inspector Shekhar Bagade, in-charge of the cyber crime investigation cell, said, “The Rs 22-lakh online banking fraud seems to have been done by cyber criminals from Nigeria. While some amount from the firm’s bank account has been transferred into various fake accounts in Virar and Kalyan, the fraudsters have also indulged in e-banking transactions by hacking into the firm’s bank account. There is a possibility that the company’s bank account number and password were revealed to the fake emails sent by the Nigerian frauds.”

Better safe than sorry

• Use a ‘good’ password for your e-banking account, not easy ones, like your date of birth, spouse’s name. It should be alphanumeric with special characters
• Don’t reveal your password even to trusted friends or fall prey to lucrative offers via email and give away personal information, including email user ID and password
• Be wary of emails asking you to update your bank account details
• Don’t click on any link on an email even if it appears to be from your bank. Memorize the URL and type it in the address bar. The ‘s’ after the ‘http’ in the URL denotes that the website is secure
• Always tear photo copies of important documents, such as PAN card, electricity bill, passport, when discarding them so that they cannot be misused

Companies using social network sites like Facebook, Twitter to hire potential candidates

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20…

Net banking Transactions
Now, give a missed call to authenticate yourself

After storming the entertainment world, the concept of ‘missed’ call is set to secure your online transactions. NetCore Solutions has recently launched 2FA (second factor authentication), a software that will recognise your missed call and pave your way for entry into the Net banking facility.

When a customer logs into Net banking with his password, a separate screen pops up with a landline number. One has to give a missed call from their mobile to the landline number within two minutes. NetCore software receives the missed call and matches it with the customer’s mobile number registered in the bank’s database to provide access.

NetCore clientele includes Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, IDBI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC, IndusInd Bank and Development Credit Bank.

Banking regulator Reserve Bank of India recently made it mandatory for all banks to implement 2FA for all online transactions.

Kalpit Jain, Chief Operating Officer, NetCore Solutions, said customers can go wrong while typing the one-time password used currently as second authentication.

“Besides being cost-effective, our software provides convenience to the customer and cuts down the latency (delay) involved in receiving a password through SMS,” he added.

Apart from banks, many insurance companies have also shown keen interest in adopting the missed call facility to fulfil some of their service obligations.

“A customer can give a missed call from his mobile number registered with the insurance company to receive details on his policy through SMS,” he added.

Global conglomerate GE (General Electric) used missed called facility of NetCore to ensure employees safety during the recent Hyderabad bomb blast. GE employees received a message asking them to give a missed call to a particular number if they were safe. About 80 per cent of GE staff responded, though it did not necessarily mean the rest were in danger, said Jain.

NetCore also handled Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption campaign by generating support through missed calls and SMS. In 180 days, it received 25 million responses from 19 million respondents.

“We intend to market missed call as a solution rather than a commodity. Our overseas clients were pleasantly surprised to know how a solution can be created through a simple missed call. Maybe we have a ready-made overseas market to tap,” said Jain.

Be on guard against card fraud
-—————————————-
Vikas Varma, The Business Line

Cyber fraud is on the rise but so are the means to check it.

Payment card frauds are a reality in a world that is increasingly growing cashless. Additionally, this fraud is also migrating from more secure to less secure regions and channels.

In India, even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported a lower incidence of 8,322 cases of cyber frauds in 2012 — a decline from 9,588 cases in 2011 and 15,018 cases in 2010 — there are two key differences in the nature of frauds today.

One, many of the frauds in India now have a global face; two, they are increasingly being perpetrated by organised and adept criminal communities, unlike in the past when individuals were involved.

However, if stakeholders work in tandem, the incidence of fraud can be sharply reduced. And progress in this direction could be faster than what has been made so far.

In fact, managing fraud should not be seen as the bastion of only the banks, payment platforms or the government. It is time for financial institutions, service providers, technology pioneers, merchants, law enforcement agencies and cardholders to come together. Crucially, advances in technology have brought about a suite of innovations and services that foster greater protection for consumers from payment card frauds. Therefore, an integrated approach and induction of superior technologies is clearly the need of the hour.

Tech to the Rescue

This becomes all the more imperative in a nascent, albeit growing cashless market such as India. The overall debit and credit card usage at the Point of Sale (PoS) has seen rapid growth. According to the RBI, the number of transactions using debit cards at PoS was 327.5 million, a shade higher than the 320 million transactions using credit cards at PoS.

In a market with such a scale of transactions, how can all the stakeholders come together to ensure greater protection? What has been the progress so far?

Technology as a key enabler of fraud management: In recent years, the global payments industry has been banking increasingly on technology not only for ease of use at the customer-end but also for making card payments more secure.

Using state-of-the-art predictive modelling technology, MasterCard provides issuers with a real-time predictive fraud score on all transactions at the time of authorisation. Innovations like these are steps ahead of even the RBI’s latest mandate that credit and debit cards should be issued only for domestic use by default and that international cards will have to be EMV chip and PIN-enabled.

Checking Cyber Crime

The banking community in the country, conscious of the problem of payments fraud, has started taking proactive steps which are laudable.

Some of the larger banks that are credit card acquirers have replaced some POS machines at merchant establishments, following card ‘skimming’ frauds.

Further, with virtual cards now being issued by a few banks, it makes it more difficult to steal data. With bankers being more aggressive in advising merchants to invest in security partners who will enable secure networks for payment processes, there could be a decrease in frauds.

It is also heartening to note that some of the Police departments across various states have been running a seven-day capsule course on cyber crimes for police stations, in association with India’s leading software association, Nasscom.

With the course now being mandatory for all police officers, apart from those who are already part of the cyber crime cells, it has helped local police stations investigate cases related to cyber crime, including credit card fraud, with greater vigour.

Safety Practices

Finally, practices adopted by customers in using credit and debit cards will go a long way in ensuring greater card protection. For example, while shopping online, it is useful to ensure that that the Web page address should start with “https” not “http”. The “s” that is displayed after “http” indicates that the Web site is secure.

Also, while travelling overseas, it is advised to notify one’s bank so that it is aware that overseas transactions will be made. If not, the unfamiliar spending patterns could cause your bank to suspect that your card is being used fraudulently and thus delay your card purchase approvals.

The : RBI’s latest policy and technology guidelines could mark the beginning of a new era to help check card frauds. With banks moving towards a system that facilitates authentication for cards issued in India and used internationally, there will be closer coordination between them and the authorised card payment networks.

Similarly, the new guideline that allows banks to block cards via SMS if needed will make it easier to protect consumer interests. In September 2012, it became mandatory for telecom operators offering mobile wallets with cash-out facility to sign up customers only under a Banking Correspondent tie-up.

These measures could perhaps take time to take full effect. But they would have a long term positive impact in driving payment card protection measures.

(The author is Area Head – South Asia, MasterCard)

_ “it is difficult to legally establish the identity of sender of e-mail messages
unless they are digitally signed. E-mails that are not digitally signed should
not be used for critical transactions requiring authentication of senders; like
execution of contract, payment or transfer of money, issuing official notices
to external world”._

RBI validates e-KYC through Aadhaar

This may reduce the risk of identity fraud and document forgery, paving the way for a paperless way of fulfilling KYC norms

New Delhi, September 4: The Reserve Bank of India has accepted an electronic KYC, based on the Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) number, as a valid way to open a bank account. This could reduce the risk of identity fraud and document forgery, paving the way for a paperless way of fulfilling the know-your-customer (KYC) norms.

In a notification on Monday, the central bank said an e-KYC was acceptable under the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005. Banks may open a new account by taking a person’s Aadhaar number and biometrics. Once matched, the demographic data, including identity and address proof stored with the UID’s central registry, can be accessed by the bank concerned to complete the verification.

A bank will need to take “explicit consent” of the person concerned to “release her or his identity/address through biometric authentication to the bank branches/business correspondents,” RBI said.

A P Singh, deputy director general of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said the move would help the banking and telecom sectors the most. These would save on the huge cost of storing and verifying the documents in question, along with the obvious advantages of establishing an audit trail and reducing document fraud. The department of telecom would also have to, first, notify an e-KYC as a valid verification process for new telecom connections.

“Since RBI has approved it, we’re hoping other regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) also allow e-KYC for other financial transactions,” said Singh.

Business Standard had reported in July on a division regarding whether e-KYC was allowed under current law. The matter was referred to the law ministry. Last month, the ministry had approved, as it felt the Information Technology Act considered electronic documents at par with physical ones. The finance ministry had then written to RBI and to other regulators such as Sebi to issue directives for financial companies to start accepting e-KYC.

According to the RBI notification, banks will have to sign an agreement with UIDAI to access the e-KYC service, deploy hardware and software, develop a software application and define a procedure for obtaining customer authorisation for UIDAI to share the data with the bank.

Passport alone no proof of citizenship: Bombay High Court

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politi…

Lack of proper authentication overseas
led to card-skimming frauds, says RBI

This may be because there is no authentication process for securing transactions overseas.

“The problems relating to illegal debit card transactions happened because we are inter-linked, and the two-factor authentication and the other security measures did not exist in overseas market where these cards were cloned and used,” said G. Padmanabhan, Executive Director, RBI, at an event organised to announce a tie-up between Western Union Money Transfer and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
According to him, “Technology has enabled an inter-linked world and payment infrastructure. While this is welcome…please also remember that you are as good as the weakest link.”

Urging Kotak and Western Union to put systems in place to address these concerns, Padmanabhan said some violations have started happening particularly in the area of money transfer.
Recently, some customers of private sector Axis Bank had complained of cash getting withdrawn from their accounts from overseas locations.

In its investigation, the law enforcement agencies found out that fraudsters had fixed skimming devices on some ATMs so that information on the cards can be skimmed and cloned. The information was loaded on to a cloned card to make fraudulent withdrawals in Greece.

He said while the RBI is taking many new preventive measures, the system is looking for a first mover to answer “is moving to EMV chip and pin is the only solution to fraud in card transactions or are there better solutions?”

Giving other suggestions, Padmanabhan said if card as a payments instrument can be replaced by mobile-based options, then cloning may not be possible. He also asked banks to aggressively explore the NEFT technology.