September 17th, 2013 - Banning Circular By RBI On Online Forex Trading in India for Individuals

Dear folks, recently I got a registered courier from my bank on Saturday the 5th of 2013 clearly addressed to me that the bank regularly monitors all the credit cards and online banking transactions and on one such instance, it had observed online foreign exchange transactions from my card.

The bank stated that under the purview of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act), the intended to bring to my notice the following instructions as issued by the Reserve Bank of India vide its circular dated September 17, 2013.

1. Remittance in any form towards overseas foreign exchange trading (including through electronic / internet trading portals or by use of credit / debit cards) is strictly prohibited and accordingly, the customers are cautioned not to remit or deposit money or utilize credit / debit card for such transactions.

2. Further, any person resident in India collecting and effecting/remitting such payments directly/indirectly outside India would make himself/herself liable to be proceeded against with for contravention of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999 besides being liable for violation of regulations relating to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms/Anti Money Laundering (AML) standards.

3. Banks are required to report such prohibited overseas foreign exchange trading transactions on credit / debit cards to the Reserve Bank of India.

In consideration to the above points, it is the best to refrain from doing any online spot forex trading transactions directly / indirectly via Debit / Credit Cards, online bank transactions or through other persons. If you have made a large cash or if you’re worried to withdraw your just deposited money, it is not possible to get back because if you get any remittances from forex trading to your bank accounts or cards, your bank account / cards will be blocked. So, don’t try to get back the money to you banks or cards.

Beware of Bank Account and Password Stealing Internet Virus “Win32 / Ramnit”

A message from Country's cyber security sleuths to alert the internet users about a malware family called “Win32 / Ramnit” which is spreading widely in Indian cyberspace. This virus “Win32 / Ramnit” very smartly steals bank account details and passwords once the user clicks his online bank accounts.

Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) advisory said, “Win32 / Ramnit” worm spreads by infecting or changing files existing on target systems such as (.exe, .dll or html). The expert security advisory said, the malware steals credentials like file transfer protocol passwords, bank account logins, infects removable media, changes browser settings and downloads and executes arbitrary files". The virus is so deadly and potent that it hides itself from antivirus scanning and takes genuine system file names to escape antivirus screening.

The virus spreads very deadly and infects the removable media by copying itself to its recycle bin and creates autorun.inf file. As soon as the system is infected, the malware injects its code into windows executable, html files or dlls to communicate with its command and control server, thereby compromising the security of the online system.

The expert advisory advises to enable firewall at desktop and gateway level and disable ports which are not required. The best thing is to update the antivirus and anti-spyware of the desktop and other gateway level systems to protect from this deadly virus.

How To Get Online Donation Button In PayPal For India?

Most of us would have tried for some causes to get online donation from known relatives or friends or like-minded people who are interested to fund either in India or from outside India. I tried the same for one of my causes and was trying to raise fund from www.gofundme.com.

After writing my article about my cause to get funding, Gofundme was oftenly showing that “your PayPal account is not verified”. Even though, my PayPal account is a premier and verified one and after trying many times, I got the same reply.

Leaving Gofundme to go out of my way, I tried alternatively to have a PayPal Donation Button for my blog. I know everyone will get this inside Merchant Services tab. I was dazed to see that the PayPal donation button option was not there. Called the PayPal customer care number 1-800-212-3852 and the answer were as expected “being in India or to India, you can’t get Donation Button or Donation in PayPal”. I hope this will help my fellow bloggers who may have tried or wasting their time for trying to get Donation Button in India or alternatively have tried like Gofundme!