With the increasing popularity of online banks, many are wondering how to safeguard against online banking fraud. To be completely honest, there is no fairy-list of unauthorized/bogus banks. Many people fall trap of bogus banks with high interest and saving rates and deposit their money with them, ultimately losing all their money. Apart from the obvious (i.e. free hosted website, non-existent bank names etc.) how is one to know which websites are authorized and safe to use?
Well there are few ways to find out:

a. This list of Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has enumerated few unauthorized banks. One such bank is Atlantic Standard Chartered Bank & Trust, N.A. Internet Bank. Such banks use titles of famous banks as their subtitles to feign that they are a part/branch of that bank. Hence one should only contact a bank directly from the bank’s main website. And before investing into any unpopular virtual bank, one should go through such lists to check whether it is enlisted as bogus or not.

b. If you do online banking with a local bank and know their website then it is safe. Virtual Banks are low in reliability. Hence one interested in doing banking with virtual banks should make sure that the bank is enlisted in famous banking forums. Famous online banks such as Emigrant Direct, HSBC and ING.com are popular and well trusted. Reading banking blogs/forums might bestow a person first-hand experience stories which might be helpful.

c. Another way is to know whether the website of the bank is authentic or not. That is, to see who registered the domain. This can be done by visiting websites such as godaddy.com and confirm the URL’s registrar. But this has its own limitations as domains are no check for authentication of bank.

d. Read out the tips provided by FDIC about internet banking. Such tips might accustom an investor with do and don’ts of online banking!

e. Use FDIC find bank tool to locate an FDIC insured bank along with its web address. But the web url is for the parent unit of the bank not its branches. Which means some bogus bank can use major bank’s titles as their subtitles and misguide investors.
So if the bank you are planning with to work with passes through these tests then it would be pretty safe to invest in that bank.