Stay safe with BigPay

Fraudsters are always looking for new ways to trick you into giving them your hard-earned money. We know the pain of losing money and just how terrible that feels 😔 so we’re sharing ways you can spot the patterns and tricks fraudsters are using and some practices you should maintain to keep your money safe.

Identifying fraud 🔎

There are a number of ways frauds can happen:

• Calls from unknown numbers asking you for your personal information such as your date of birth, OTP, and more to verify your identity in order to receive the claimed cash prizes.

• Random text messages on your phone or personal messages on social media requesting that you share your personal information because something is wrong with your account.

• Impersonating our brand through a few phishing sites claiming that you’ve won cash prizes.

• Invitations to WhatsApp groups where you’ll be invited to be “authorised sales agents” on behalf of brands.

There are all unlawful acts. 🚫

Fraudsters are desperate to get your money, so you should be very careful at all times to prevent your BigPay account from being compromised. In case you might have more questions about security, here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to help you identify what these scams look like and how you can prevent yourself from being their next victim.

At BigPay, keeping your money safe is our priority. 💙

Apart from our dedicated teams working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep your money safe, we’ve shared ways to keep yourself from online scams, but there are additional steps that you can take to protect yourself from fraudsters. To further help you steer clear from trouble, we’ve also shared some tips on our social media to help you stay safe.

To keep your money safe, here are some smart practices to maintain:

Shop from trusted sites 🔒

You should only buy items online if you know the person behind the screens or have an existing buyer-seller relationship. When shopping online, the payment method is often via online banking. However, if you do not know the person behind the screens, you're at risk of being scammed.

Beware of shopping from sellers you are not familiar with, it's easy to set up an online profile with a fake name, which means you have no clue who you're sending money to. As soon as you've sent money to the scammer, their standard move is to block you and leave you helpless. 😔 So let's avoid that. It's also worth spending some time to read the reviews and spot a pattern. That gives you a better understanding of whether it's customer service, delivery, or product issue.

Pay by card 💳

It’s a safer option compared to online transfers. ✔️

When it’s time to hit the ‘pay’ button, opt to pay via card, especially on e-commerce sites. Paying by card gives you the added layer of protection if the items you’ve picked out turns out to be fake or never arrives. If you pay someone you don't know by online bank transfer, it's almost impossible to get your money back due to the fact they might have quickly moved the money to another account.

Paying via debit cards gives you the option to raise a dispute with us if you can't come to an agreement with the seller. It might take up to two months to get your money back, while both sides collect evidence.

Trust your gut feeling 💯

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If you even have a hinge of doubt, do not proceed. After all, it's safe to say prevention is better than cure.

How to spot the scams? 🧐

Another way to keep your money safe is to have all the information you need to identify scams. The following are some examples:

Example 1: You receive a phone call from an anonymous claiming to be authorised personnel from the IT support and is asking you for your One Time Password (OTP)/personal information in order for them to fix an issue with your account.

Example 2: You receive an SMS from a personal number claiming that you’ve won cash prizes. Now you are required to click on a link that redirects you to a website requesting your personal information to collect your reward.

Know who you’re talking to

Remember that your bank will never:

• Call to ask you for your PIN or full banking password

• Ask you to withdraw or transfer money to any other account

• Send someone to your home to collect cash, a PIN number, cards or cheque books

If you’re a BigPay user, we’ll also never:

• Call you without a prior engagement from you via in-app chat

• Call you using mobile numbers

• Ask you to share any sensitive information about yourself or your account, like your OTP

• Ask you to move your money out of BigPay and into a different account

• Explicitly tell you to join WhatsApp group to sell BigPay cards to others

What should you do if you suspect you’re a victim of online scams?

Don’t panic, breathe, we’re in this together. First things first, don't make any bank transfers. Authorised push payment fraud is a kind of scam where someone tricks you into sending them money from your account.

If you've received a call that you suspect could be a scam, hang up the phone. Do not call the number back, instead, call your bank directly using the number on your credit or debit card. They'll let you know if there actually is a problem with your account.

If you suspect you've fallen victim to scams on your BigPay card all you need to do is hit the ‘freeze’ button. 🥶 Your card will be inactive immediately, no one will be able to use your card.

You should also get in touch with us by reporting the incident to our customer support agents via our in-app chat services.

Keeping our community safe

Together we can keep fraudsters away and deny them access to your private information. By reading and sharing vital information like this with your family and friends, we’ll build a vigilant community equipped to identify scams and prevent accounts from being compromised. 💪