Real-Life Fraud, Real-Time Answers

Arriving home from a vacation, few things taint the experience in quite the same way as urgent messages from your credit card company. Two years ago, I returned from France to learn that several "unusual transactions" had been identified on my account. I'd been robbed, even though I still had my card in my wallet. Most surprisingly, the card issuer had accurately pinpointed all – and only – the fraudulent transactions, among the (many) legitimate vacation expenditures. Impressive.

Being inherently curious, I asked the anti-fraud representative how it could have happened. She explained that cards are easily cloned, assigned new names, used quickly and then discarded.

I was stunned. I shred every piece of mail with any personal information. I'm careful when shopping online. I shield my fingers when entering my PIN at automated tellers. None of this had protected me.

My credit card issuer had indeed discovered $6,500 in real fraud. I had to fill out some forms and, of course, new cards with new numbers were issued. My balance was corrected. Life returned to normal, more or less. Except I worry that each time I use my card, it's being skimmed for the data that will make me vulnerable again. Roughly a year later, it happened again. Same procedure. New cards, new numbers.

In addition to being curious, I also have a bit of a vindictive streak. I began to imagine the crook getting sprayed with a permanent dye, receiving a nonlethal electric shock or being handcuffed and arrested at the moment of the transaction. If only anti-fraud technology worked this fast...

Well, HSBC and SAS have partnered to develop exactly that sort of technology. With the unique "time to intelligence" advantage of SAS software and HSBC's fraud expertise, real-time fraud detection is not only possible, it's being used today (see related story).

I've asked if they can work on the electric shock thing. They said they'd get back to me.

Matthew Barnason
sascom International Editor