How to have your money for sure on the Internet: What should you do and what is your bank already doing

Spain has a couple of decades progressively increasing its adaptation to the 'online' banking, digital payments and other type of digital finance services.The best example is that of electronic commerce and the figures support it: according to the statistics of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), our country beat at the end of two0two0 its own historical record of business volume in 'Ecommerce':

The figures might seem logical within the stepped increase in recent years, but we must be factor in account: the arrival of COVID meant a 57% drop in tourism, the sector that, by far, generates more business on the Internet.The striking thing is that, as we can see in this more detailed graph, despite the descent of the tourist business there were other sectors, such as supermarkets or the purchase of appliances, which doubled their billing compared to two019.

For Santiago Carbó, Director of Financial Studies of Funcas, with COVID there are two trends that run in parallel.On the one hand, "with the proliferation of online payment possibilities, fraud attempts are increased by identity supplant and, above all, of the type 'card not present', those operations in which our fraudulently used ourmeans of payment for security keys or similar failures ".On the other, "the protection systems of the issuing means of payment have increased very considerably and have been reinforced with the requirement of double factor authentication".The confluence of these two trends, in their opinion, makes it necessary to "strengthen financial education and safe payment culture".

So that online finances are a safe land we must all put on our part, both citizens and financial entities.If the former we want to safeguard our money when we move it online, these are some of the advice to be taken into account:

1.- Safe access.When you enter your bank's website, as well as in some electronic commerce or in which you are going to make a payment, you must go to the address bar and look at which the URL does not start by 'HTTP', but by 'by'HTTPS ', which will indicate a protected connection.Likewise, it is advisable to connect from the house wifi or from the mobile data of your 'smartphone', in no case from a public or open wifi.You must also be careful with the device from which you connect: it must be yours, not a public or shared with third parties.And finally, every time you have done the operation in question you must close the session.

two.- Personal data and passwords.Many times it can laziness establish a very elaborate password, especially if you think you are not going to remember it easily.Choosing passwords too simple is never a good idea, but much less is when doing financial operations on the Internet.Passwords should always be long, complex and with letters and numbers.In addition, you should change each equis time in case security gaps occur.

"It is important to never share keys, either by telephone or by mail or by other means," adds Carbó."If someone requests a key, it is an unequivocal sign that it is a fraud.It is also more frequent also the theft of passwords and data in places with little safe network connections.It is better to wait to make a transaction or do it from our mobile device with our usual data connection, provided it is a data provider and safe and recognized phone.We will also be safer when the payment process implies the confirmation of our bank by double factor through a safe form of certification ".

3.- Eye with the 'phishing'.There is one thing that you must take into account: your bank never, in any way, will ask for information committed by email or SMS.In no case.If you receive an email or text message in which 'your bank' requests personal data or your online bank access password, you will be facing a clear case of 'phishing', in which someone will be going through yourfinancial entity to steal data or money.Other tricks to evaluate whether you are a possible victim of 'phishing' is to check the address from which the email comes to you, observe that the mail is written in perfect Castilian or look at possible spelling faults.

Your bank will never ask for information committed by email or SMS

4.- Virtual or prepaid cards.If you have doubts when paying on an electronic commerce portal and providing your bank account or card data, there are safer alternatives.We can buy a prepaid card or, from your bank's website, create a credit or virtual debit card, in which case you will have a unique card number for that operation and with the balance you have destined for that task.In this way, if someone steals the card credentials will not access all your funds, but only to those you put on the card in question.

5.- Caution and common sense.It is the last advice, but also the most important.When doing financial operations on the Internet we must be very cautious and keep the head cold.Have you discovered a price too low for a product?Do you sell it on a website that you didn't know so far?Are you asking for payment methods that until now you had never used?Has an email arrived in which they ask you to make an urgent payment in exchange for any kind of compensation?In all these cases, you should not get carried away by good impressions, since the options that you are facing a possible fraud are very high.

The concern to protect your personal information and your money not only falls on you, but also on your financial entity, which cannot be responsible if someone steals money, but will be doing everything possible to avoid it.These are some of the measures that Spanish banks already implement to protect our money on the Internet:

1.- Safe and encrypted accesses.We said before connecting to your bank's website you should notice that the URL starts with 'https', not by 'http'.But what if your bank has not enabled a safe connection?The truth is that this is impossible.Currently all Spanish banks have safe and even encrypted connections.In addition, they are usually attentive to possible 'phishing' campaigns to, in case someone is using their name to commit fraud, to notify their users for them to maintain prudence at all times.

two.- Double authentication.When paying in an electronic commerce or operating on your bank's website, it is often not enough to put the simple data on your card.When operations are especially compromised (payments, transfers, products hiring...), Spanish banks resort to reinforced authentication or double authentication.Where is this?In that, when you face an operation of this level, your bank will ask you to identify you a second time through a code that send you by SMS, the introduction of your password or the insertion of the security code of your card, among others, among othersodds.

3.- Normativa PSDtwo.The protections that we have just explained are common to all Spanish banks, since they are marked by European legal regulations. Concretamente por la PSDtwo (Segunda Directiva de Servicios de Pago, por sus siglas en inglés), una norma aprobada por la Comisión Europea en two015 que regula el mercado de los pagos electrónicos en la zona Euro.This regulation, as we say, is common to all EU countries, so that if your financial entity is attached to this territory, all these tools will necessarily have to strengthen your security.

All these formulas are the one that helps maintain the safety of our money in the financial operations 'online'.Santiago Carbó, in fact, is convinced that Spanish banks have done a correct work when helping their own users: "His payment catwalks are the safest, many of them in collaboration with media emitters of mediaPayment recognized.The Bizum case is also remarkable, which is increasingly used as a means of payment for 'ecommerce' and not only as a money transfer tool ".In any case, he considers that "there is a margin for a normative development in numerous aspects of consumer protection and the investor before digital fraud.Not only in electronic commerce (where much progress has been made), but also in payments, transactions and investments with cryptocurrencies or in the detection and elimination of non -safe and/or fraudulent sites ".

It is, in short, that we can all operate with our money on the Internet without fear of losing it.