The proliferation of fraud and phishing activities online brought forth a line of customers who wave red flags in front of you whenever you advise them to try Internet banking. And why won't they, when they have been victims of identity theft or of stolen account numbers or transaction ID's through the Internet banking, which most probably caused them losses that amount to tens to hundreds to even thousands of dollars.

Beware of Online Criminals!

Some countries tend to have more cases of Internet banking fraud than others. These countries are as follows:

(With no particular order)

• Australia
• United States
• Countries in Europe
• Singapore
• Other countries in the Asia Pacific region

If you live in or are currently staying in any of these countries and you will be using the Internet banking often, every bit of information here is for you. But whether you reside in any of these countries or not, if you signed up for an online bank account, you always have to put security into consideration--and that is, even if your bank account is already inactive or has not been accessed for quite some time.

Do You Know Why You Need To Secure Yourself?

You ask, "I have a bank account that has online access. But that is a bank account that doesn't have any money in it. Do I still have to consider all this talk about security?" The answer is, yes, you have to. If that answer's not enough, then here's a reminder of just some of the delicate information you inputted upon signing up for your online bank account:

* Your personal information like full name, birthday, address, and contact information. Think nobody would ever think of getting your personal information? Truth is, these seemingly insignificant bits are actually already enough for online thieves to hack into your account.

* Your identification numbers. In Australia, identification numbers may refer to your Tax File Number or TFN. In the United States, the TFN's equivalent is the Social Security Number. This is one thing about online bank registration processes that customers are pretty cautious about. It's because these identification numbers equate all pertinent information about you.

* Your driver's licence, government ID, and other documents.

Financial Institutions Keep You Safe...

Because of the really sensitive information associated with Internet banking accounts, financial institutions adopted measures to keep you secure from fraud and all other illegal activities on the Net. Two of the most popular measures are as follows:

* Passcode- The passcode can contain letters, numbers, or a combination. It may have four, six, eight, or more characters. Top tip: For better security, try a combination passcode. If this is not possible, devise instead a passcode that is not a word from the dictionary.

* Encrypted Information- This is a complex transformation of information from plain text to algorithms that will surely make it hard for any hacker to access your account unless he directly logs in to it. Secure sites like internet banking require at the customer to have at least 120-bit encryption browsers to run, which is 50 times stronger than the typical web browser.

... But You Have To Do Your Part, Too!

Despite all the security measures that banks employ to safeguard you, in the end, your security is still your own choice. How do you make sure that you're secured? Following are some tips:

* Please never share your passcode with anyone. If you have suspicions that somebody might have hacked into your account, or you are seeing unknown charges on your statement, revise your passcode immediately.

* "Revamp" your computer. Always delete cache and cookies. For Firefox browsers, cache and cookies are deleted by clicking, "Tools," on your menu bar and selecting, "Clear Private Data."

* Never, never just close out the Internet banking window if what you want to do is to log out from your account. That's basically what a "log out" button is for.

* Always check with your bank if you receive e-mails that claim that they are from your bank and that you need to provide some information that you provided when you registered, "... for security purposes." Chances are they really aren't. Refrain from clicking any link or providing anything until you have verified with your bank that that e-mail is really from them.