Behaviour online
Be careful of sites you visit and emails from unknown parties. in particular while purchasing online.
- Do not browse unknown sites when surfing the internet.
- Be suspicious about sites offering certain services free of charge or explicit content for adults: most of these sites are designed to infect your computer.
- If in doubt after visiting an unknown site, perform an analysis of your computer using your internet protection software, and do not hesitate to carry out analyses with several online antivirus solutions.
- Do not download files from unknown sites or companies.
- Only use sites which are legal or reliable companies for downloading files.
- Be suspicious of companies offering free downloads: online, just as in everyday life, a third party which offers you a free service could be hiding commercial or devious intentions.
- Systematically analyse the files downloaded using your internet protection software.
- Immediately delete messages that come from an unknown sender especially if the message has a file attached.
- Also delete messages that have a blank field for the recipient’s address (Field “To”).
- Be cautious with e-mails that come from a known address containing an attachment.
- Analyse the file attachment using your internet protection software before opening it.
Some hackers use fake e-mail addresses and try to pass themselves off as your bank
This type of message, known as phishing, is a practice used by fraudsters posing as a bank in a fake e-mail, the aim being to obtain your personal details.
The BCGE uses the BCGE Netbanking messaging system to communicate in total security with its users and only sends messages to notify clients that a new e-document and a new secure message has arrived (these notifications are only sent for users who have activated and chosen this option). Furthermore, these e-mails include no link that has to be clicked on to direct you to the BCGE website.
If you receive this type of e-mail, contact your bank immediately, do not reply to the message and, above all, do not click on the link given in the e-mail.
Mule scamming
On Internet, fraudsters try to “recruit” the users of e-banking systems for money-laundering operations. This technique is known as “mule scamming”; a “mule”, in the criminal world, being an intermediary used to illicitly transport/transfer merchandise (money, drugs, etc.)
Alert : fraud of the “false nephew”
Confidential information
When you browse the internet, the communications that you exchange on non-secure websites can be read, intercepted or modified by a third party. The most frequent case is intercepting the e-mail that you have sent via a website: it is then “re-sold” to companies or third parties who flood you with “commercial” junk mail, also known as “spam”.To tackle these problems of the confidentiality of your details and this sort of hacking, online experts have implemented a secure communication protocol: the SSL protocol (Secure Socket Layer).
Used by the majority of secure internet sites, this protocol has two key functions:
- it encrypts the information exchanged between your computer and the internet site so that your communication cannot be read or modified by a third party intercepting the data online.
- it authenticates the site you are connected to in order to prove to you, for example, that www.bcge.ch really is the BCGE’s website.
Check and verify the address of the sites you consult
When you are using the internet, remember the golden rule: once you have keyed in the address of a site, systematically check the address of the site which is displayed.This simple verification enables you to know whether you are on the right internet site or not. For your confidential or financial operations, it is essential for you to know the website address beforehand.
There is no need to check the whole address which is displayed in your browser. The address after the letters “http://” and before the first “/” is sufficient.
Be careful when shopping online
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your computer is not infected by performing a thorough analysis, that it is fully secure with internet protection software and by behaving cautiously online
- you change your password regularly and that you do not use the same password on different sites
- you read the site’s terms and conditions of purchase carefully
- the site in question is secure (protocol SSL - https) and that the company is trustworthy and known
- if the supplier of goods or services does not honour its commitments, we advise you to file a complaint with the police, contact the Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance (MELANI) and report the fact that you have been a victim of fraud.