TAMPA, Fla — Online banking and e-commerce are integral to how we live our lives.
It's often how we buy food, gas, clothes, and pay our bills. But the CEO of online banking platform, One, Brian Hamilton says that convenience comes with a cost.
Fraudsters are always one and always paying attention," he said.
It's estimated that in 2021 alone, the amount of money people lost in online banking scams was in the billions. And many times, Hamilton says the scams are tied to a form of identity fraud where crooks will create real bank accounts under your name.
"They actually then open up some account that has an ACH or a bank-to-bank connection and then they use that to connect to your real funds and pull money out," he said.
So how do you protect yourself and your cash?
Well, Hamilton says it all comes down to things like changing your passwords regularly and using online tools to verify that it's really you when you log into your account.
So turning on two-factor authentication, right? So that you would get a text to your phone if someone tried to access your account," he said.
And he adds that certain online banking groups, like his company, also allow you to "lock away" portions of your money. So that if scammers do gain access, they can't steal everything.
"So that would actually forbid anyone from accessing that pocket [of money] remotely from that account," he said.
