Cybercrime: Can you get back stolen money?

Handling money and making transactions over the Internet is becoming increasingly easier and many users benefit from that. However, that might not necessarily be such a good thing as many users do not take the much needed measures in order to protect their money. Russian-based cyber security company, Kaspersky, has conducted a research that came up with rather worrying results about scams and recovering your money if you fall victim.

Up to 40% of users are vulnerable to cyber crime related to money

According to Kaspersky, 81% of users use the Internet for transactions and a rather large percentage, 44%, of users also have financial information saved on their devices. Yet only 60% of those users use the necessary protection tools in order to make sure their money is secure. The remaining 40% leave their important financial information exposed to cyber criminals.

Reportedly, billions of dollars are lost due to cyber crime every year, and that is only from reported cyber crime. The security company reveals that on average, a scam victim loses $476 per fraudulent transaction, and one in ten can suffer losses going up to $5000. “The compound annual loss sustained as a result of online fraud, identity theft, and malware amounts to billions of dollars worldwide, if we consider only reported cases, which makes the real loss much more substantial,” reports Kaspersky.

More than half of scam victims do not get their money back

If you become a victim of an online scam, it would not be unusual to expect that the bank would return the money, and almost half of Kaspersky research participants expect that as well. However, this could not be further from the truth. 52% of victims, who turned to their banks after getting scammed, reported that they either did not get their money back or got only parts of it. A senior analyst at Kaspersky Lab, Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, cautions users to not assume that the bank will return the stolen money. He assures that “the best way to keep your money safe is to avoid having it stolen in the first place. Use dedicated security products that won’t allow cybercriminals to lay a hand on your personal and financial data.”

There are certain things you can do, however, to recover your money. The main factor is acting in time. In some banks, when you make a transaction, the money goes into reserve and is not actually transferred to the recipient until a certain amount of time passes. If you react immediately and contact the bank, there is high chance that they can reverse the transaction and give your money back. The longer you wait, or the longer it takes you to notice, the lesser the chances of recovering the money are. The sad reality is, if your money was stolen due to your own negligence, the bank might not be willing to give it back to you. And that is why it is essential that all users take all the necessary precautions to ensure that their money is safe. While banks do bear certain responsibility over the money, in the end, it is up to the individual. You are responsible for your money and you should take all measures to prevent any risks. Because if you get your money stolen, you might just not get it back.

How to protect your credit card

• Enable SMS notifications from your bank. Scammers tend to steal money via a series of transactions, so a timely SMS might keep you from bleeding more money.
• Immediately block or freeze your card if you notice any signs of fraudulent activity.
• If your bank offers the service, use a virtual card for online shopping. With other cards, ask about enabling zero-dollar limits for online transactions or card-not-present transaction blocking.