I’m sure we have all heard about online offshore banking. You still pay your bills by mail and make deposits at your local bank. You may have shopped online for a loan or a home mortgage, but you still would rather do business face to face at a bank you trust.
With online banking you will still be dealing with your own bank, you are just taking advantage of the convenience of banking without leaving home. You will not have to write checks and send them through the mail. You can automate your bill paying and have more time to enjoy your life.
Banks have used computer networks to automate their transactions for years. As we know with our checking accounts, we receive a monthly statement instead of the canceled checks. This is a record of our transactions without the time consuming action and expense of getting all of the canceled checks together and sending them. Banks have taken that automation a step further by offering you an alternative to paper and postage.
Online offshore banking is becoming a popular alternative for those who have a great deal of money and are looking for a tax shelter. Secure internet shopping sites offer protection through a single password. This is not secure enough for online offshore banking. Online banking offers secure sites and the sending of information. Any information exchanged on an online offshore banking site, including your password-is encrypted. This makes it impossible for a third party to get or modify this information after it is sent.
Encryption, alone, will not safeguard against hackers gaining access to home PCs and obtaining your password. A user must be very careful not to give out their password or leave it laying around so that an unscrupulous party may be able to get their hands on. Most online offshore banks add another layer of security. The most widely used method is the use of transaction numbers, (TANs) that are used only once. Another way to add a bit of security, is to use two passwords which are entered at the beginning of every banking transactions, in a random pattern. European countries provides the customer with a unique token, a two factor authentication. Some banks offer digital certificates to authenticate the transactions. Many European banks offer online banking to pay a merchant directly from your account.
Many people steer clear of online offshore banking because they feel they would be too vulnerable to fraud. No security measure is completely safe, but the number of fraud cases is small. This could be because there are not a great deal of internet bankers. The truth is, the number of fraud cases in conventional banking are more widespread. A person who uses online banking must be diligent about not giving out passwords or information about their accounts. You need to be extra cautious when you are dealing with banks on the internet. The most widely known instance of internet fraud is called phishing. This is when an online banker is persuaded to give out their password to an unethical party.
One must really be cautious when using online banking, but it is much more convenient than regular banking methods.