Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AT&T To Use Phone Geolocation To Prevent Credit Card Fraud

Posted by timothy on from the so-be-good-for-goodness-sake dept.

jfruh (300774) writes "Imagine you've spent years making credit card purchases in your home state of California, and suddenly a bunch of charges appear the card in Russia. Your bank might move to shut the card down for suspected fraud, which would be great if your account number had been stolen by hackers — but really irritating if you were on vacation in Moscow. AT&T is proposing a service that would allow customers to let their bank track their movements via their cell phone, to confirm that you (or at least your phone) and your credit card are in the same place."

6 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Buying a new phone by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're screwed if you break your phone and then go to the store to buy a replacement.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >Or call your credit card company before you leave and say you will be traveling in country X on these days.

    Tried that. They still blocked the card after my first transaction abroad.
    You are making the mistake of thinking banks have processes that meet your needs, rather than their needs.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  3. Re:Stupid by ohieaux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I absolutely pull out my AT&T sim card before traveling. I've seen too many stories of people getting gouged by US cellphone companies.

    This sounds like a disaster for someone trapped overseas. It sounds more like a way for AT&T to force customers into the trap of using their cell phone overseas.

    --
    Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
  4. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by click2005 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A text whenever your credit card was used saying "Card with number ending in xxxx was used in location yyyy, if this was a fraudulent charge reply to this text" would work just as well without the privacy issue of tracking locations.

    --
    I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
  5. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by DrPeper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    THANK YOU! Somebody FINALY got what's really going on here. This isn't about helping customers (at all) it's about AT&T attempting to find an "EXCUSE" to keep and monetize location information. This is a VERY bad idea for consumers.

  6. domestically stupid by globaljustin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    nothing in TFA (or the ATT page it links to) say this is **international only**

    I did note this in TFA however...

    AT&T plans to test a service allowing payment card providers to access the location of a customer's phone to improve the accuracy of fraud prevention systems for transactions made abroad.

    this is tracking your phone, all the time, and letting your credit card company access the data

    I see this as using fraud to justify spying on you

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett