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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."

13 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Or call your credit card company ... by perpenso · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    1. 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.
    2. 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.

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    3. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Informative

      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 bank with B of A, and travel a few times a year to far away places. I've never had this issue. Perhaps you need to look into a different bank?

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    4. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They do.

      Yours may not, or you talked to the wrong person, but its fairly common. Bank of America certainly does, as does Capital One. BoA emailed informing me I would be cut off within 24 hours if I didn't respond or answer when called, then called me once while in Vegas blowing money, after confirming with them that I was legitimately spending my money, I asked if I could avoid the problem in the future, so they don't cut me off if I DON'T get the call/email in time. The answer was simple, call us before going out of town at the number on the card, inform them of the trip and time period and they'll change their processing (but not stop it) so you won't be left stranded.

      AT&T does the same thing for phone calls, tell them you're leaving the country and don't want to be considered suspicious they'll note the time of the trip and give you a pass for that time, they also suggested I sign up for the 'world' plan for roaming for that month as it was something like $5, which was basically the cost of the per minute rate in that country for AT&T roaming if I wasn't on the plan but $1 or so on the plan. Just remember to cancel at the end of the trip.

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    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. Re:Or call your credit card company ... by PRMan · · Score: 3, Informative

      ALWAYS have 3 credit cards from 3 different banks. (Preferably VISA, MC and either Discover or AMEX). Diversification is the only way to win.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  2. 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.
  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. Are you sure? by Marrow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe your credit was.....frozen....at the time.

    Sorry bout that, couldn't resist.

  5. Push payments? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If they're going to track your cel phone, that means they're assuming you have your cel phone on you. So why not send the authorization code to your cel phone and let you give it to the merchant? That way it doesn't matter if the card's stolen, the merchant can't get an auth code if you aren't present with your phone. Or better yet, have an app that'll let you punch in the merchant's ID and transaction number and initiate the payment from your end, rather than having the merchant handle your card? That makes stealing the card pointless, because just having the card isn't enough to let you make a charge.

  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
  7. Re:Not really by internerdj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what about those of us who refuse a smartphone for various reasons? I wouldn't mind having one but I'm not going to shell out another $20/month for internet on a device that I mainly use in a place where I already pay for the internet.