Beware of email-frauds

We all get a number of mails asking for help in transferring their millions of dollars to India - showing an opportunity for earning huge commissions. These mails that usually are from Nigeria or other African countries asking for help by using your bank account for the funds transfer. Every week we also win million of dollars in lotteries. Internet servers mark these messages (and we should regard too as) spam.

However, there is a new turn to these mails. Now to show authenticity, they are using the name of India's central bank, the RBI, into the picture. They claim that huge sums of money for disbursal of loans in India at cheap rates have been kept in an account with the Reserve Bank. In these lines, the RBI has 'refuted' these claims and has cautioned the general public against following prey to these fake e-mails.

mBanking Revisited

Mobile Banking, a facility being provided by many banks in India, is not entirely a new concept. But the scope of this service is now expanding. It is now not just restricted to checking your balance or mini-statements on your mobile screen.

The great penetration of this medium in India has the potential to effectively tap the unbanked people. As mobile-based applications expand from GPRS based services to Bluetooth enabled ones, these are not feasible for banking purposes - most of these people in question are not equipped with technology-enabled (read:expensive) handsets. Banks need to, therefore, focus on technology restricted to the ones available on plain-vanilla handsets, viz. SMS.

Going a step further, some companies introduced Mobile Payments in India. However, these were only linked with a Credit or Debit Card. The role of the phone was only restricted to acting as a second factor of Authentication, i.e. only to improve security while paying by cards.

But now it is possible to remit money via your mobile, with the launch of mobile version of VISA Money Transfer. Several such peer-to-peer (P2P) remittance services have successfully entered in some of the foreign markets.

RBI is working on a guideline for enabling the service for banks in India. Once banks get the green signal, it is set to change the face of the Banking Industry.