Safety measures to take when sending money to India online

Picture this situation:

It’s Friday night and you have a plan to meet your friends at a nearby club. After a long day’s work and a busy week, you are looking forward to hang out with your friends and relax. You reach the club and meet your friends. After the initial hugs and high fives, you are waiting to get inside the club and enjoy the party. In some time, a group of people arrive at the scene. They start creating a ruckus outside the club for no apparent reason. They are troublemakers who have no respect or consideration for other’s feelings. From the sidelines, you are witnessing their antics and have a feeling that these people may jeopardise your fun time and threaten your plan. Just then, a bouncer steps in. He is a burly guy who looks like he can stop the troublemakers. Just one look and one gesture to them is enough to bring the situation under control.

The presence of the bouncer changed the situation and foiled the wicked group’s plans. Now, drawing an analogy from the same example, the troublemakers are online threats that show up unexpectedly when you are transacting online, especially when you are transferring money online, and the bouncer is a personification for security tips. By following the tips, you can transact online conveniently. After all the hard work, when you send your hard-earned money to your loved ones back home, in India, you want it to happen smoothly.

So, today, we are going to talk about security tips that you can follow when you transfer money to your loved ones back home in India. These tips will help in sending money quickly, conveniently and most importantly, in a secure way.

Always keep this list of do’s and don’ts handy, as a check-list when you transfer money to India:

Security tools:
When you need to transfer money regularly, it becomes imperative that you install a good anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware software in your computer as well as your mobile phone. From time to time, you need to update the software to keep your devices protected from newer viruses too. Install a reliable firewall in your computer to double check the security. By installing these software once, you ensure the safety of all your transactions.

Right information:
Enter the right details when you are transferring money. Firstly, be absolutely clear about the recipient’s name and other details for the transaction. One wrong digit in the account number can transfer your money to somebody unknown. It is always advisable to double check if you have entered the right recipient name, account number and other details.
The other important detail you need to check is the amount of transfer and the date of transfer. Entering a date later or before the required day can cause fluctuations in the exchange rate and other complications.

Privacy policy:
Each money transfer channel has its own specific privacy policy. Even though, things don’t change to a larger extent, it is advisable to read and understand it, at least once. It is advisable to pay attention to communication from these money transfer channels for any updates on policies or offers.

Place of transaction:
Cyber cafes or public computers, say at airports, cafes, offices or even a friend’s home are susceptible to fraud. These places are used by many people and may leave cookies that can be followed. Always conduct money-related transactions on your own device, preferably the same that you regularly use. You can always track it back if it is from a single computer, in case of any untowardly transaction.

Browser usage:
Open your money transfer page link in a separate browser. Shut all the other open tabs on that browser because information can be leaked from anywhere and cookies can follow you from everywhere. Always check whether the url contains “s” as the last word in http and also pad lock symbol appears on the screen.

Password policy:
Keep your online banking password unique. Don’t use the same password for non-monetary transactions and websites. Avoid using birth dates, spouse or children’s names or your company’s name as password. They are easily predictable and make your account susceptible to fraud. Create passwords which contain alphanumeric and special characters that are hard to crack. Also keep changing the passwords at regular intervals. Never write or store the passwords in any form. In exceptional scenarios, please click on ‘forgot password’ and generate new passwords.

Other security measures:
Save all the receipts and online communication of the transaction for records. Maintain records for proof in case of a problem. Keep track of your transfer with the online tracking facility available with your transfer provider. Do not store account related information in personal e-mails, like under any folders or drafts.

In case ICICI Bank is your money transfer provider then do not respond to any emails which are not from ICICI Bank domain, that is which does not end with @icicibank.com, do not respond any emails or calls which solicit for your confidential information. Regularly check your emails to observe if there are any information about banking related transactions. In case of any suspicious emails received, please report the same to antiphishing@icicibank.com'

Transacting online is simple, safe and convenient. Just follow a few good practices and transact without any worries.

Happy and safe money transfers to you!

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