Invest Smart: How to protect your money from financial cyber-scams

While the rise in digital transactions has a lot of benefits, it makes us much more vulnerable to online fraud. There has been a massive spike in the number of financial cyber scams

There has been a huge evolution in the kind of online financial scams that we’ve seen. And over time, its become more and more sophisticated making it that much more difficult but not impossible to spot. Especially now with the rise of artificial intelligence, its given a whole new dimension to the kind of scams that cyber criminals can do.

So the big question is, how do we keep ourselves and our money safe?

Distrust everything in cyberspace, no matter how genuine it seems and then verify, says cybercrime investigator Ritesh Bhatia. If you've been the victim of a financial cybercrime, then you must submit a complaint. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Avoid reporting & blocking a number immediately: When you report a number on whatsapp, you lose the messages and the evidence gets erased. Instead, block the suspicious number first.
2. Take screenshots of all the communication with that number.
3. Once you’ve submitted a complaint, then report number.
4. Call 1930 as soon as possible, ideally within 30 to 60 minutes of discovering you've been defrauded.
5. Log on to cybercrime.gov.in & submit complaint 
   First 30-60 minutes most important
6. You will receive a call from local police station 
   Visit police station, submit complaint 

The first 30 to 60 minutes is extremely crucial. If you reach out for help during this time, there is a good chance that you might be able to get your money back, Bhatia says. |

While financial institutions, regulatory bodies are all trying to ramp up cyber security, it is also just as important that we do our bit in protecting our hard-earned money from such scams.