MasterCard Tackle Credit Card Fraud

MasterCard has teamed up with cloud-based mobility solutions company Syniverse to fight overseas credit card fraud.

It’s a simple, but brilliant idea - link a credit card to the location of a mobile phone to ensure that the card is being used in the same location as the rightful owner and not by a criminal for fraudulent objectives.  If the credit card in use is not within close enough range of the users’ mobile phone, then the transaction will simply be declined.

Enabling customers to geographically link their credit cards to their smartphones will also help prevent their cards being blocked when they attempt to make payments abroad. On many occasions credit cards are declined when used in foreign countries due to users not notifying their bank of their travels. MasterCard’s smartphone  geoloaction feature offers to put an end to this.

The system functions transparently to the user and does not necessitate pricey roaming contracts. The user’s mobile phone merely needs to be switched on, be kept on their person and for them to have opted-in to the security service. Within fewer than 300 milliseconds a check goes from the payment terminal into Syniverse’s platform, which keeps track of where roaming phones are located, and then information is returned about whether a transaction should be approved or denied, according to Mary Clark, chief marketing officer at Syniverse.

To further ensure that users don’t incur excessive roaming fees, MasterCard will be offering travellers the option to purchase prepaid data packages to use upon their arrival into the country. This will enable users to keep their smartphone's GPS turned on without incurring expensive roaming charges.

At present, Syniverse operates throughout roughly 200 territories, providing MasterCard with geolocation access to millions of consumers across the world who will potentially opt in to the service.

The Industry Report Store has a variety of reports on the credit card market, providing insight into the current market situation as well as potential opportunities for the future. Browse our extensive range of credit card reports and contact us if you would like any sample pages or if you want to enquire about any reports that we might have.

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Source: Marketing Week, The Guardian

Robyn Jones
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Biometric Passwords

Researchers at Purdue University claim that the use of biometric technology will replace passwords in the near future. This would mean that you could log into your computer or activate a smartphone with your fingerprint. This is all meant to ‘boost security’ whilst ‘making our lives easier’, according to the director of the International Centre for Biometrics Research Stephen Elliott. They are researching ways into developing iris and fingerprint scans, and facial and voice recognition designed to replace passwords.

It seems as if we are fast approaching a world where Gattaca won’t look so much like fiction. For those who don’t know, Gattaca is a science fiction film from the late 1990s with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke where biometrics rules the world, right down to genetic discrimination. Many, in particular those scientists developing this technology, would argue that comparing biometric passwords to fictional dystopias is melodramatic and ridiculous. Then there is always that question of the slippery slope...If biometric passwords prove to be popular, how long until biometric banking becomes available? When there is money involved, crime will happen. We can’t say that something so crude as cutting off a man’s index finger to drain his bank account would happen, but how exactly do we plan to protect ourselves against fraud? 

There is no doubting that it would be a darn sight easier to swipe a finger instead of remember a huge host of complicated passwords, but are we ready to deal with everything that biometric technology will bring? 

Take a look at our technology reports to see how our business intelligence could benefit you here. 

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Elizabeth Ryan

Marketing