Your Chinese New Year angpow is going digital but there are risks

There’s something to be said for the virtues of cold hard cash. It’s fast. Instant and you can generally tote it around wherever you go rather than relying on something that needs battery power to make it useful but like everything else in life, the age-old tradition of giving red packets aka AngPows during Chinese New Year has gone digital.

Since 2016, a growing number of Malaysian financial institutions have now offered the ability to gift e-Angpows via an app or verified Facebook account. Granted, this cashless method is even easier than ever before – you don’t even have to physically meet the recipient – but as with everything digital, there are risks, according to Kaspersky Labs.

According to research firm Forrester, there has been a 62% increase in payment fraud since Oct 2015. Global payments are expected to exceed $2.3 trillion 1 by 2019, and each year, with non-cash payments accounting for an increasing share of this massive market. Cashless transactions are growing by 10% 2 , and are likely to represent over one million transactions every minute by 2020.

Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager at Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia

“Currently there are 34 licensed e-money issuers in Malaysia 4 , and the number is undoubtedly at an uphill climb. Our own data at Kaspersky Lab have shown that globally, 35% of users now use their smartphone for online banking and 29% for online payment
systems. With the parallel rise of available e-payment services and interested users, we expect more financially-motivated threats against this technology. Newer successful payment types will see more attack attempts as their profitability increases. The more money involved, the more tempting it is for cybercriminals,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager at Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia. “When it comes to e-Ang Pows, it would be a wise move to stick to tradition, by giving out the physical red packets to the loved ones, keeping the traditional practices alive,” adds Yeo.

Kaspersky Lab Tips for Giving and Receiving Safer e-Angpows

Kaspersky Lab has the following simple but effective tips to help Malaysians harness the convenient power of cashless technology while still securing their online money:

– Be sure that your PC and smartphone have the updated OS and solid cybersecurity solution. Kaspersky Lab’s updated consumer suite 2019 are packed with features aimed at boosting financial security of devices.

– Verify the site or app that you will be using – check if they are legitimate and with strong encryption.

– Always use a strong and unique password. You can test your password at https://password.kaspersky.com.

-Implement two-factor authentication.

– Download your payment apps from an official app store like the Google Play Store or Apple app store.

-Ensure that your guard is up every time you are making online financial transactions. When in doubt, double and triple check.