Digital transactions: Follow this six golden rules to be safe!

New Delhi: Following the demonetisation move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has pushed for and encouraged e-payments or digital transactions to fight against black money and corruption.

But are digital transactions really safe considering that over 32 lakh debit cards were compromised and blocked by banks in October with the State Bank of India alone blocking over 3 lakh cards?

There is no denying that swiping a card or paying online is much easier than to carry cash for payment. Besides, e-payments have its share of benefits too with the government announcing a series of schemes too.

But how safe are digital transactions really?

Here are six golden rules to help one protect their cards or e-payments and be safe.

Strong password/PIN, change them frequently:

Avoid easy dates such as date of birth, anniversaries, etc. Instead, make a combination of numbers, alphabets, special characters and even upper case letters.

Use weird and strange languages if possible, even your own mothertongue and not necessarily English or Hindi.

And don't write down your password anywhere, by any chance.

Be careful of Apps on Mobiles:

A lot of apps on mobiles, be it banking apps or digital payment apps, asks for permission to access your contacts, messages, and even files. Once permitted, these apps will have access to all your contacts (possibly where you have saved your password), messages (details of banks) and others.

So, be very careful as to which apps you are downloading – don't go by offers and discounts provided by the apps as a means to download them. You know e-wallets store details of your credit and debit cards and you could open up a space for data breach by installing the wrong apps.

Password for Apps:

Digital or e-payments will always need passwords for verifications. Set a strong one. However, you apps will need passwords to be protected too.

Imagine you mobile landed in the wrong hands and an order in terms of goods worth thousands were ordered, payments already made from your e-wallet – all because your app was not protected.

While such actions may be protected by two-factor authentication, one can never really say. So, be on the safe side.

Enable two-factor authentication:

This is one of the best ways to protect any fraud on digital transaction – two-factor authentication. As per RBI rule, one has to register his mobile number to the bank for notification on any bank related issues and a 3-D secure methodology.

Make sure that you enable these facilities as any digital transaction or e-payments will require the D3 password, the notification for which will be send to your registered mobile number.

Be careful of swipe machines:

Not all swipe machines can be safe. Scammers can steal your card data through skimmers on bugged ATMs and point-of-sale machines.

The recent news where the Goa police arrested three in such related case is one example.

So, always use safe ATMs and POS machines before swiping your cards.

Wipe out data in case of lost mobile:

Oh the world of technology – losing your smartphone could also mean losing your wallet or pulse considering that you have downloaded e-wallets for online transactions and payments.

But luckily, Android and iOS apps have the option of wiping out your data from lost or stolen phones.

So, if you happen to lose your phone or is stolen, you know what to do. It's easier than filing an FIR and running after the thief.