With all the news lately about identity theft, a number of banks have upgraded their online sign-on procedures and registration. For example, ING Direct launched a new login process last week. It uses a method called risk-based authentication and involves a number of new, more secure techniques to verify that someone is who they say the are. [via Payments News]
My own bank is like that. If I log into my bank account from a different computer (IP address, to you techies) than usual, I get asked my security question. Neteller, an online payments processor similar to Paypal, does something similar. In fact, it shut me out when I temporarily had to login using the Internet access on my smart PDA recently. I had to phone Neteller and have them fix things. But I forgot to finish the verification process up to about a week after calling Neteller. So when I tried to login a couple of days ago, they locked my account. It may be inconvenient, but it's good to know that banks and online payments processors are taking these actions. A little bit of inconvenience is worth it to protect my funds.
However, I digress. Ing Direct's new verification process requires you to go through a few extra steps than previously, but it'll help you be sure that you're on a real Ing Direct website. This means phishing attacks via spam email are less likely to be successful. The verification process is not complicated however. Instead of me repeating what the Payments News post already says about the process, I suggest you have a read over there. (I didn't see any details on the Ing Direct home page.) If you're looking to open an online savings account, here are instructions for Ing Direct and Emigrant Direct.
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