Investigating Net Banking Fraud And Scams In Australia

On the basis of research aim and objectives certain research questions of the following study are:

• What is the percentage of net banking fraud in Australia?
• What are the different types of net banking frauds?
• What is the effect of net banking fraud on economy and society?
• What is the importance of awareness program in increasing consciousness regarding net banking fraud?
• What are the potential ways to reduce the rate of net banking fraud?
• What are the recommended strategies to enhance online banking trust and ensuring the security against net banking fraud?

The following study is associated with the investigation of net banking fraud and scams in Australia along with the suggestion to prevent such fraud. With the advancement of new technology, net banking fraud or scam has been increased in the recent time. Various technologies, which are used for net banking fraud, are Spyware, Viruses and Trojans. There are four kinds of new banking fraud, which includes mobile banking, mule recruitment, phishing and shimming. Due to net banking fraud, Australians also faced huge financial loss. Moreover, cybercrime and the virtual scam have also been raised for the reason of net banking fraud or online fraud.

The introduction of net banking facilitates in conducting day to day transactions and financial data activities in a proper way. On the other hand, due to the presence of hacking experts net banking fraud has also been raised day by day. The study would provide information regarding the issues associated with the attacks, fraud and security related to net banking. The research would also evaluate the appropriate suggestions for the purpose of prevention and sure the safety as well as the secure net banking system.

On the basis of the research topic, the objective of this study is to find out the loopholes that help in raising net banking fraud along with suggesting the potential ways to prevent such fraud. Based on research aim, research objectives of this study are:

• To investigate the percentage of net banking fraud in Australia
• To find out different types of net banking frauds
• To analyse the effect of net banking fraud on economy and society
• To assess the importance of awareness program in increasing consciousness regarding net banking fraud
• To recommend the potential ways to reduce the rate of net banking fraud
• To recommend the strategies to enhance online banking trust and ensuring the security against net banking fraud

The reason behind to select this particular research topic is to increase knowledge about net banking frauds and its impacts on society and economy in Australia. This specific topic is also helpful for raising the awareness of people living in the society about the online or net banking frauds and identifies the possible strategies for ensuring the prevention of such fraud and enhancing security against online banking. The potential outcome of this research project is too aware the society regarding the various types of online banking fraud, which has increased due to the development of advanced technology.

The term online fraud is regarded as any kind of fraud or scam, which uses website, email to present false solicitations to eventual victims. The conduct of fake transaction is also a part of net banking fraud (Dzomira, 2016). Technologies that increase net banking frauds are included malware, phishing and malware. New technologies that might also the reason for the rising of online frauds are spear phishing, social phishing and keylogging viruses.

According to (Mann, 2015), the percentage of net banking fraud is increasing day by day in the country of Australia for the reason of development of advanced technology. Apart from that, cybercrime attack has also risen due to which organizations and banks in Australia are facing the issue in the relation to insecurity. In the year 2016, online banking frauds have been increased by 16 percentages, which has a negative impact on the economic condition of public as well as private organizations. Due to increase net banking fraud, illegal removes funds from the bank and transfer the same into different account has also been raised. In this case, criminals majorly pay attention to the customer directly and track them to disclose their confidential and important information related to bank details, money and many more (Smith, 2018). On the other hand, hackers majorly focused on the hacking computer to reveal personal and bank related information of customers so that they can easily transfer the money from the account of customers to their different account without any problem.

Research aim and objectives

According to (Bhasim, 2015) different types of net banking frauds are phishing, mobile fraud, fraudulent email, malware and viruses and smishing or text message fraud. Phishing is a common type of online fraud. Phishing is regarded as a procedure of collection of personal and confidential information through website or email. This type of information can be username and password, credit card number and many more. The misuse of personal information is the result of the financial loss, which is faced by the public as well as private companies in Australia (Cross, 2015). Fraudulent is also kind of online fraud, which is majorly used to acquire personal information. Fraudulent website or Pop-up website basically used for the purpose of collecting personal and confidential information.

Moreover, the aim of spyware or virus is to destroy important information. Mobile fraud is another type of net banking fraud, which increases the risk of accessing the personal information through smartphone or mobile phone. The above mentioned various types of net banking fraud have a negative impact on economic condition as it is the cause of huge financial loss (Dzomira, 2016). Apart from that, visiting is another type of online fraud, which is used for accessing the essential information by providing a fake phone number. Smishing is also the type of fraud through which it is possible to gain information step-by-step orders by sending a text message. Due to these different types of net banking frauds is the result of distressing of personal as well as business finances (Button et al., 2014).

According to (Broadhurst, 2017) net banking fraud has the negative impact on economic growth of company or bank as due to increase the online fraud, business organizations and financial institutions faced the issue in relation to enormous financial loss. Moreover, people living in the society also faced the problem in terms of misuse of their personal and essential information, for example, bank information, which is also the result of their financial loss. In this context, net banking fraud only affects the economic conditions but it also affects the living condition of people of the society. In addition, people also faced the issue with respect to loss of their personal information (Harrison, 2015).

Moreover, day by day the rate of net banking frauds is increasing due to the reason of introducing lots of new technologies. In addition, net banking fraud is also the cause of lack of security and safety (Cross, 2015). In this context, advancement of technology and technological innovation has both impact on economic condition and society because with the implementation of new technology, business organizations including financial institutions are able to increase sales volume and improve the business performance (Owen, 2017). On the other hand, with the development of advanced technologies, these organizations and banks faced the problem in terms of misuse of personal as well as important information, which can also be the result of loss of monetary funds. Moreover, the use of fake documents, false identity has also been raised due to increase the percentage of net banking fraud.

According to the viewpoint of (Whitty, 2015)) to ensure the prevention of net banking fraud, it is essential to increase the awareness of people of society including business firms and financial information. By gaining such information organizations and people become aware regarding the same. In this regard, the awareness program is the appropriate program to raise the consciousness of people and banks including organizations. Apart from that, by conducting awareness program it is also possible to provide information regarding possible ways through which online frauds can be prevented. Awareness program is also an important program because it is helpful for people to raise their awareness regarding security and safety. In this context, the management of business organizations and banks need to conduct the awareness program including people of society for the purpose of increasing they're own conscious along with others (Levi, 2017). They also come to know about the ways to secure the personal and bank related information such as credit card number and debit card number including username and password through awareness program (Dzomira, 2017). This particular program is also effective to increase knowledge about various method based on which it is also possible to protect important information and ensure the minimizations of financial or monetary loss.

Justification and potential output of the research project

The rate of net banking fraud can be reduced with the help of some effective ways. The creation of unique user IDs or log-in identification is effective for the reduction of online fraud. In organizations and banks, the username and password need to be different from each other (Patel et al., 2017). Moreover, dual control can also be another way to reduce the threat in relation to the collection of important information. Banks need to use only certain IP locations and email address for the aim of doing transactions as it is also an efficient way to prevent net banking fraud. In addition, multi-factor authentication and awareness program is also more efficient to minimize the rate of net banking fraud (Cross et al., 2014). To ensure the reduction of online or net banking fraud it is essential for business organizations and financial institution to resolve banking transactions and accounts on daily basis.

In accordance with the viewpoint of (Jorna, 2016) with the implementation of proper strategies it is possible to enhance the online banking trust and security. For example, with the use of biometrics such as eye scanning, voice identification is effective for increasing online banking security. By incorporating system and transferring old data or information into new format online banking trust can also be enhanced. By ensuring the online banking from security of private home network would also be effective to reduce the misuse of essential information and make sure the enhancement of net banking trust. Apart from that, two-factor authentication would also an appropriate strategy to improve the online banking security and make sure the secure banking transactions (Cross et al., 2018). In addition, banks and other organizations also pay attention on two systems of verifications for the purpose of improving the trust towards online banking or net banking.

The research project has been developed with the aim of investigating the effect of net banking fraud on economy and society in Australia and identifying the potential recommended strategies to prevent the online banking fraud. The literature review has been conducted in this study in accordance with the research aim and objectives, which have been developed in the introduction chapter of the research project. During the time of conducting this particular research project, there were certain research limitations that have been explored by the researcher. Information that has been gathered with the help of secondary data collection method was not sufficient to draw the productive conclusion of the study. The exact and accurate information regarding impacts of net banking on economic condition has not been achieved, which is also a limitation of this research.

Research philosophy basically helps in reflection the assumption of study. Three types of research philosophies are positivism, realism and interpretivism. Positivism provides facts and accurate as per requirement of the research project. Interpretivism philosophy delivers relevant information on the basis of interpretation of human beings, which indicates that human interest needs to be considered in case of interpretivism philosophy for the purpose of obtaining the required information. The combination of positivism and interpretivism is known as realism philosophy.

Conceptual Framework

Based on the requirement of the research project, positivism philosophy has been selected in this study as with the help of this philosophy it is possible to acquire facts about the research topic. With the assistance of this philosophy, it is also possible to understand impacts of net banking frauds on economy and society and ensuring the completion of an entire research project in an appropriate manner.

Two kinds of research approach are inductive and deductive. The inductive approach helps in obtaining theoretical information with the assistance of research questions, which have been made in the introduction chapter of research. On the other hand, deductive approach starts with hypothesis testing. Moreover, inductive approach is related to the qualitative research and deductive approach is associated with the quantitative research.

The inductive approach has been chosen for this study as a research project has not adopted any hypothesis testing. Inductive approach is also helpful for this study to explore new theory as well as information with the assistance of existing data. With the help of inductive approach, it is also possible to develop the relationship between a variable of this particular study.

Research design assists in gaining reliable information and addressing the research problem based on which it is possible to achieve desired goals of the study. Three kinds of research design are exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. Exploratory research design supports the researcher to change the way of conducting the research project on the basis of new elements related to the study. Descriptive research design majorly helps in gathering detail information about research topic with the assistance of various secondary sources, for example, literature studies, journals, articles, books and online sources. Explanatory research design helps the researcher to present collected data in an explained and appropriate way.

Among these several research designs, exploratory research design is suitable for this research project as with the help of this design, researcher is capable to explore new information with the support of existing facts of the study. In addition, researcher is also able to discover the factors in relation to the net banking fraud and its impact on economy as well as society. This research design is also helpful for identifying proper strategies for the prevention of such frauds. In this context, existing facts and new information are supportive for this study to complete it successfully on time and make this research project effective.

Research strategy is an important part of research methodology because it helps researcher to carry out the research project in a proper way and complete the same in an effective manner without any problem. Research strategies majorly include research philosophy, approach and research design. A suitable research strategy has been considered in the study to conduct this research project in a systematic way. Moreover, appropriate research strategy is also helpful for this study to ensure the collection of proper data as per requirement. Secondary data collection has been taken into consideration in this study to gather reliable as well as accurate information based on requirement of this research project.

Two types of data collection method are primary and secondary. Primary data collection method provides primary and raw data, wherein secondary data collection method helps in collecting secondary data with the help of secondary sources. On the basis of purpose of this research project, secondary data collection method has been selected in this study. Therefore, different secondary sources such as journals, books, articles and literature studies have been used in this study to collect reliable secondary data and complete this study successfully. Moreover, secondary data analysis has been taken into account in this study to analyse gathered data and develop proper findings through which it is possible to draw the efficient conclusion of the study.

Evaluation of different types of net banking frauds

It is important for researcher to follow certain ethical considerations to conduct the research project in an appropriate manner. In this context, researcher needs to be ensured that authentic secondary sources have been used to collect accurate as well as reliable information regarding research topic as per requirement of the study. Permission of corporate authors needs to take before using secondary sources and gathered information needs to be kept in a secure place to avoid misuse of confidential information, which may affect the entire work of this research project.

From the above Gantt chart, it has been evaluated that total 8 weeks are required to complete the entire work of this specific research project and ensure the attainment of research aim and objectives. One week is required to complete introduction chapter, where the discussion is about the background of the study, research aim, objectives and questions along with the justification for selecting such research topic. To complete the work of literature review chapter two weeks are required as research aim and objectives would discuss in this section to acquire detail information regarding research topic.  Another two weeks are essential to finish the chapter of research methodology as different methods would identify in this section as per the requirement of study. More two weeks are also required to complete the data analysis and findings chapter along with ensuring the achievement of objectives of the study. To draw the productive conclusion of this research project another one week is also essential. Total budget that required conducting and completing this study in an effective manner is $910.

References

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Broadhurst, R., 2017. Cybercrime in Australia. In The Palgrave Handbook of Australian and New Zealand Criminology, Crime and Justice (pp. 221-235). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Button, M. and Cross, C., 2017. Technology and fraud. The Routledge Handbook of Technology, Crime and Justice, p.78.

Button, M., Nicholls, C.M., Kerr, J. and Owen, R., 2014. Online frauds: Learning from victims why they fall for these scams. Australian & New Zealand journal of criminology, 47(3), pp.391-408.

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Owen, T., Noble, W. and Speed, F.C., 2017. The Challenges Posed by Scammers to Online Support Groups: The ‘Deserving’and the ‘Undeserving’Victims of Scams. In New Perspectives on Cybercrime (pp. 213-240). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Patel, P., Kannoorpatti, K., Shanmugam, B., Azam, S. and Yeo, K.C., 2017, January. A theoretical review of social media usage by cyber-criminals. In Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI), 2017 International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

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