You don’t have to feel the need for speed when it comes to fraud alerts. Rather, you should require it.
That’s the underlying logic behind the latest feature ClairMail Inc. officially announced yesterday. The new fraud feature, which is just the beginning of a family of business-level solutions to launch, aims to curtail fraud by quickening the notification alerts to consumers’ mobile phones.
It works like this: Perhaps a consumer visits a different state and uses a credit card never used outside his home turf. The financial institution could shoot over a text alert to his phone, inquiring whether it’s fraud, and in turn, the consumer can text back whether the charge is legit. ClairMail’s new feature also grants consumers the ability to set their own thresholds of what “suspicious” looks like in their everyday lives. Maybe a consumer has a credit card but never uses it for online shopping – he might establish an alert for that e-commerce transaction, for example.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that fraud is a big problem,” Carl Tsukahara, CMO of ClairMail, told Bank Innovation yesterday. Beyond trying to tackle the issue that time literally is money, the fraud tool also strives to help financial institutions make their mobile banking offering more than just their online banking transplanted to a mobile phone, adds Tsukahara.
ClairMail is in good company with its objective, as more engaged mobile fraud alerts have been on the mind of many for months. Just the other day, a Wells Fargo exec told Bank Innovation that it identifies rapid alerts and real-time actionable banking as a compelling area to consumers. [Already, Wells offers Rapid Alerts.] Plus, research firm Gartner declared last year that the use of location information or profile information from mobile phones will be used to validate 90% of mobile transaction by 2013’s end. The ClairMail news is just another example that points to the greater relevance deeper mobile fraud technology will have to financial institutions in the coming months.