Banks warn on fraudsters - There’s no need to be vulnerable

Though most of us use online payment systems very few of us have any understanding of how they work or how vulnerable they might be. After all, if we had we might be as successful as Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, founders of payments firm Stripe valued at $35bn.

Online payments or various cards are targetted by thieves and the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) warned yesterday that the average sum stolen is €1,005, but is €1,320 among people over 55.

Those losses cannot be sniffed at but they often have an impact far beyond a raid on a bank account. The humiliation can be as cutting as the monetary loss. The idea of not being up to speed or capable of engaging with an online world is undermining too.

A deepened sense of vulnerability can be as significant as the loss of money, even though those realities apply to all age groups.

There are many ways to counter fraudsters and nearly all rely on sharpened awareness and keeping an eye on bank accounts.

Another requires a robust scepticism and a default position of not sharing information with strangers. Another might be to have an extra card with access to no more than what might be called walking around money. After all, if the money is not in an account it cannot be stolen.

Though the BPFI report focused on consumer vulnerabilities and how they might be exploited it did not mention the tracker mortgages scandal which is hardly surprising.