India has the highest rate of online banking frauds in the world: report

• A survey by FIS, a financial services technology provider, showed that 18% of Indians suffered from an online banking fraud in the past year.
  
• This was a higher percentage than any other country’s respondents.
  
• In December, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology, said that there were over 25,800 cases of digital fraud in India in 2017.

After you finish reading this, you might want to review your latest banking transactions or even change your passwords or PIN codes for your credit and debit cards.

According to a global survey conducted by FIS, a financial services technology firm, Indians are among the most frequent victims of online banking frauds. In fact, around 18% of Indians surveyed reported a fraud in the preceding year. This was a higher percentage than any other country’s respondents. In comparison, only 8% of people from Germany reported a fraud followed by 6% in the UK.

A major portion of frauds affected Indians between the ages of 27 to 37 - the most regular users of online banking channels. Around 25% of the people in this age group reported a fraud.

There were some positive findings, however. The report identified the increased adoption of digital banking channels by Indian respondents above the age of 53. It also showed that smartphones were close to usurping laptops as the main device through which banking transactions were being conducted.

This past December, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology, said that there were over 25,800 cases of digital fraud in India in 2017 resulting in the theft of nearly ₹1.8 billion rupees. As the use of digital banking applications becomes more widespread, it is likely that the rate of frauds will only increase further.

As per its notification in July 2017, The Reserve Bank of India has tried to limit customers’ liability when faced with fraudulent online transactions by giving them a window of three days to report the fraud. However, this does not extend to cases where the customer knowingly gave their payment info to a third party.

India’s policemen are also being trained to tackle cyber crime. The government of Karnataka, which instituted a cyber crime cell in 2003, plans to enroll 1000 policemen in cyber crime training programmes. In addition, the police units of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are reportedly collaborating with data security and IT experts to improve their cybercrime investigation skills.