Comparethemarket.com was commissioned to do a study by Populus, about online cyber attacks on customers. The study found that 1 in 10 customers were the victim of debit or credit card cyber attacks in just the last year. The problem is that in over 60% of the cases, there was the successful removal of money from the account. Most of the time, the money was removed using an online payment method. £475 is what the average amount that was stolen. In just the UK, this equals to over £2.1 billion and leads to over 4.5 million debit and credit cards being cancelled every year.
If we look at sheepskinhouse.co.uk, they have a safe online payment, so you don’t have to worry about when purchasing items from them.
Always be precautious
The survey also found that the 30 percent of people who were defrauded in the last year said the hack happened when they used an online payment method. However, only 10 percent were defrauded using card duplication when using an ATM. There is also a rise in the amount of people being hacked when they are making contactless payments, with it now being 8 percent.
While the risk of being victim to a cyber attack is on the rise, the results of the study found that many people are not taking steps to protect themselves when they make an online payment. Over 25 percent of people who were surveyed use the same passwords and PIN’s for all their online accounts and cards. People do this for two reasons, the first one is that it is easier to remember, and the other is that they do not want to use more than 1 password.
However, after being hacked, people wake up and make changes. Over 40 percent change their credit card and bank provider after being hacked. Almost 50 percent now check their bank statements more often. They also use online payment options less often.
You will be taken care of
Thankfully, both the fraud departments and customer services of banks and credit card companies have been responding to cybercrime. Many banks and credit card companies watch for both odd online payment uses, and in store, uses to see if an account has been stolen. For most credit card providers and banks, an odd online payment will cause them to alert the card holder. This is normally done within a few minutes to 24 hours.
There are risks to using online payment methods. However, if you are smart, you can avoid most of the risks of being cyber attacked. Even with people being consisting told about online safety, most people do not follow the simplest guidelines. If you still want to use online payment methods, remember to use multiple passwords and check your bank account regularly. The reality is that cyber criminals are getting smarter, and are using new methods to steal our information. If you are careful and vigilant, you can protect your debit and credit cards from being hacked.