Online banking has many benefits—from a simple way to pay bills to a historical portal of your banking statements. For those of you who haven’t tried it because of safety concerns, here are three tips to protect yourself from online fraud:
- Make sure you are using an American bank that is insured against theft by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The insurance applies to any sum up to $250,000.
- Be vigilant about monitoring your transactions and respond to alerts from your bank if a charge or withdrawal appears to be suspicious.
- Never respond to emails from your bank or click on an attachment. Because of the fraud risk, banks are not using email to communicate more than a basic alert or a sales notice to their customers.
If you are concerned, contact your bank by phone or in person (but don’t reply using information included in the email you received).