Matthew Geier wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:35:07 -0500, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
Today, many of the better banks have "intelligent" systems that try to
spot detect fraud based on usage patterns. If you rarely traveled out
of your city/country or made large purchases, they might flag such
transactions at the time of sale and either deny them, require the
merchant call them, or even now call the customer's cell phone to
verify.

My bank definitely does this - last year just before a trip to Germany I
bought a whole pile of advance purchase DB tickets on-line. A few days
later I got a phone call from my bank asking about a number of
transactions from Germany. The operator said she had noted down against
my account that I was about to travel to Europe after I explained why I
was buying DB tickets with my card.

A few days later? That's not very helpful.

Many years ago, I made a purchase of about USD 5000 at a computer store
for work; while I was at the register waiting for the approval, my
mobile phone rang and it was someone from AmEx calling to see if I was
the one making the purchase. I confirmed everything was fine and within
seconds the register got the approval and spit out the receipt for me to
sign. Prior to that, I think the largest purchase I'd made on the card
was USD 250, so I have to admit it was rather suspicious and can't blame
them for wanting to be sure.

When I first started traveling for work, my debit card would frequently
come up with "Call Bank" when I first tried using it in a new city; I
had to call in and tell them everything was okay, and then the charge
would get approved on the next attempt -- and any others in that state
or country until I charged something again back home. After a dozen or
more trips in less than a year, that apparently became "normal" for my
account and I stopped having to call in. That bit me eventually,
because a few years later my card number got stolen and the crooks went
on a five-state shopping spree; I got the money back, but it took a few
weeks and dozens of police reports. If I didn't have a "pattern" of
traveling all the time, their charges would have been denied immediately...

S