Card
Fraud
As you may know,
MasterCard is currently developing anti-fraud systems, and Visa
already has such a system. The MasterCard system will be released at
the end of this year and will analyze cardholder data, merchant
activity, and spending patterns. The information will generate
statistics that will be used to target theft and unauthorized
purchases.
Visa uses Cardholder
Risk Identification Service (CRIS) and will soon use a similar
product for debit and ATM transactions. The products will send card
issuers information about a transaction shortly after it occurs.
Then, each transaction will be given a suspicion rating, which the
issuer can use to determine if action should be taken.
On paper, it sounds like
a good idea: credit card companies developing fraud software with the
goal of decreasing card fraud. But, some questions seem obvious: Will
consumers know that a list of what they've purchased on-line, at
their local mall, and over the phone is being generated? Will the
data be used for marketing? Who will have access to
it?
Put this one away under
the 'watch' category.
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