Is your Wealth and Money safe & secure from Cyber Frauds?

 Today everyone needs to ask themselves this question seriously. Because in the last one decade we have seen drastic changes in the way we invest and spend our money. If you remember, before the demonetization we used to carry a lot of cash. We did not have UPI, no Phone Pay, no Google Pay etc. Most of the payments were made in cash. Only rich people used to carry credit cards for shopping, dining etc. Almost everyone used to go to banks, Post offices, stock market brokers, insurance offices for making fund transfers / investments.

The risks of losing money in those days were different like pick-pocketing, robbers waiting near the ATMs and Banks or forgery of documents to steal from you. And we knew how to take precautions for these risks.

Now we are living in a completely different era of Digital world. Most of the financial transactions, purchase, sales happen through mobile apps, laptops or through other electronic devices. This has helped both the businesses and customers in terms of cost and time.

Unfortunately this has become a scary digital world also. You can lose all your life savings in just a few minutes and you will not even come to know about it. By the time you realize something has gone wrong, the money would have crossed the borders of our country and no one can bring back the money you lost.

In the year 2024 alone about Rs.20,000 crore rupees was lost in India as per the reported figures. It is estimated that the actual losses could be higher. These frauds are carried out by mafia networks at international levels or group of criminals and in some cases individuals also. But most of the cyber attack happens by network of criminals who also have deep knowledge of technology or have resources to hire such people. Often they also get support of enemy countries to do financial damage to our country. But we the common citizens become the victims of such crimes.

You can just take a look at any news paper on any day. You will find one or the other type of online frauds reported. Amount involved could be in couple of lakhs to multiple crores in sometimes. The victims are not only uneducated people but also professionals, retired people etc.

Can we safeguard our self from these criminals? Yes, to a great extent we can protect our self from this if we adopt some disciplines and use the technology to our advantage. Every day these criminals invent new ways to intrude into your digital world. Neither the Governments nor any technology can give us a  100% foolproof security. But you should manage the risk in such a way that, even if you become the victim of such a crime, the impact of it should be minimal.

 

To give an example, we provide access to lot of information like contacts list, messages, emails, photos, camera, voice, location to Apps like Google, Instagram, Facebook, Truecaller, LinkedIn and so many apps like that. Often this information are compromised and misused.

One should consider a few common disciplines to safeguard themselves and few of them are listed below:

a.       Use separate and secure email ID for your finances and investments.

b.      Use separate mobiles number and sanitized mobile devices for personal finances and investments.

c.       Use  secure apps for banking and financial transactions.

d.      Take help of professionals & registered investment advisors who can help for adopting safe and secure technologies and platforms managing your investments.

This blog is written Mr. Vinay B N who is a Chartered Accountant with 15 plus years of experience in managing the wealth for high net-worth individuals and also the founder of WR Ventures which focuses on the digital protection, wealth management, tax planning for individuals and families. You can write to hello@wrventures.in or visit their website at  www.wrventures.in for more information.