Cellphone banking kidnapping

Cius

Cius

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So I am getting more and more worried about being held up to force you to use your cell phone to get access to your funds:

techcentral.co.za

Banking app kidnappings are on the rise in South Africa

Banking app kidnappings, with the aim of gaining unauthorised access to victims' money under duress, are on the rise.
techcentral.co.za techcentral.co.za

My question is if you lose money this way is it covered under a banks fraud type insurance, or is there a category in your personal insurance similar to if you are robbed of physical items? What can one do on your banking app to minimize this risk other than putting all your funds in notice type accounts like the article mentioned. Can limits not be set on the cell phone app that are much lower than say your internet banking profile? Curious about what is good practice here, and how one can insure oneself better against this loss.
 
Cius said:
So I am getting more and more worried about being held up to force you to use your cell phone to get access to your funds:

techcentral.co.za

Banking app kidnappings are on the rise in South Africa

Banking app kidnappings, with the aim of gaining unauthorised access to victims' money under duress, are on the rise.
techcentral.co.za techcentral.co.za

My question is if you lose money this way is it covered under a banks fraud type insurance, or is there a category in your personal insurance similar to if you are robbed of physical items? What can one do on your banking app to minimize this risk other than putting all your funds in notice type accounts like the article mentioned. Can limits not be set on the cell phone app that are much lower than say your internet banking profile? Curious about what is good practice here, and how one can insure oneself better against this loss.
Click to expand...
Looking at my balance, the kidnappers will transfer funds to me.
 
Solution: Be Poor

Another option would be keeping money in another account that you hide from view. Hopefully the crims are not smart enough to think of that
 
Cius said:
So I am getting more and more worried about being held up to force you to use your cell phone to get access to your funds:
Click to expand...

Personally once I'm kidnapped it's actually a feature not a bug if the money gets to them quickly and conveniently.

You could walk around with no apps and no cards but then your kidnappers can just go for the old fashioned ransom demand to your family instead.

Which is bound to be slower and more uncomfortable.
 
Tomtomtom said:
Personally once I'm kidnapped it's actually a feature not a bug if the money gets to them quickly and conveniently.

You could walk around with no apps and no cards but then your kidnappers can just go for the old fashioned ransom demand to your family instead.

Which is bound to be slower and more uncomfortable.
Click to expand...
Understood, but I also want to have some that can git rid of them quickly, say 10K that is insured. I don't want them to be able to clear out my life savings. Also I want the 10K insured so that I get it back. Most criminals if they get a decent payout just want to disappear fast to go enjoy it. Hence you want something on hand to give them but not so much it messes you up for years to come.
 
Cius said:
Understood, but I also want to have some that can git rid of them quickly, say 10K that is insured. I don't want them to be able to clear out my life savings. Also I want the 10K insured so that I get it back. Most criminals if they get a decent payout just want to disappear fast to go enjoy it. Hence you want something on hand to give them but not so much it messes you up for years to come.
Click to expand...

So maybe the strategy is to have two accounts (at different banks), where the secondary is a decoy, but is the one you have the app on the homescreen for.

As for insurance I dunno, I suspect you'd need something specialised - even if it's a quick job if it meets the definition of kidnapping I imagine no ordinary insurance will touch it.
 
They could kidnap you and force you to do the same using a pc and internet banking.
 
Agree with @backstreetboy Move your FIAT away to something more stable. Just keep enough that you need to get you by
 
Obieone said:
They could kidnap you and force you to do the same using a pc and internet banking.
Click to expand...
Thing is I dont carry any of my cards with me, nor do i remember my banking passwords, so before you can reset your password you need the card number of your physical card and pin. Even if they force me to use internet banking, I still wont be able to reset the password since I dont know my card number. At least this is how it works with fnb.
 
epah said:
Thing is I dont carry any of my cards with me, nor do i remember my banking passwords, so before you can reset your password you need the card number of your physical card and pin. Even if they force me to use internet banking, I still wont be able to reset the password since I dont know my card number. At least this is how it works with fnb.
Click to expand...
Standard bank is only login name and password and sometimes a verification from your phone. Capitec is the same except with an added step using a key token.
 
epah said:
Thing is I dont carry any of my cards with me, nor do i remember my banking passwords, so before you can reset your password you need the card number of your physical card and pin. Even if they force me to use internet banking, I still wont be able to reset the password since I dont know my card number. At least this is how it works with fnb.
Click to expand...
Problem is will the criminal believe you
 
Ragnarök said:
Problem is will the criminal believe you
Click to expand...
Whether they believe or not wont matter because I genuinely dont remember my long Password. So they can do what they must. I wont all of sudden remember my password just because someone is pointing a gun at me.
 
Reality, criminals dont need your phone

They will add your profile to their phones. It just take a debit card number and a password

You will quickly start talking before losing fingers
 
Cius said:
So I am getting more and more worried about being held up to force you to use your cell phone to get access to your funds:

techcentral.co.za

Banking app kidnappings are on the rise in South Africa

Banking app kidnappings, with the aim of gaining unauthorised access to victims' money under duress, are on the rise.
techcentral.co.za techcentral.co.za

My question is if you lose money this way is it covered under a banks fraud type insurance, or is there a category in your personal insurance similar to if you are robbed of physical items? What can one do on your banking app to minimize this risk other than putting all your funds in notice type accounts like the article mentioned. Can limits not be set on the cell phone app that are much lower than say your internet banking profile? Curious about what is good practice here, and how one can insure oneself better against this loss.
Click to expand...
Bank need to be creative and come up with panic PINs. You enter your alternate PIN and it triggers an alert at SAPS or the banking security firm along with your location. Now that would be worth paying extra for.
 
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