Anti Fraud Measures

[jackfaire]

I am not talking about the effective ones I am talking about the ones that don't work but make life difficult.

I currently am using a checking account that is under my mom's name as I still owe some money to the bank that I am paying off and so I can have my pay checks direct deposited the most feasible way for me to get paid.

I have a check card for that account that bears her name. Most times I do not have an issue using this card. I am always told if it will be needing to be presented if I use it to pay for something.

Taking my best friend and my mom's husband (I know how that sounds and no they are two different people) out to see a movie. I bought the tickets online to save us time after I paid for the tickets I was then informed that the card needs to be presented to redeem tickets.

The reason this is annoying is that my mom does not want to go so will not be there and sometimes they will not accept that the card is valid if it is not wielded by her.

I call this ineffective and annoying because if I brought in a female claiming it to be her card they wouldn't question that.

[gremcint]

I worked for billing in a phone company, when a client died all you had to do was call us give us the account info (basically read some stuff about a bill or know the number address, DOB, and email address) and then READ me the line naming you executor of the estate, yes all you had to do was READ me something over the phone that for all I know you just made up and the account is yours.

[LeChatNoir]

Is it possible to have your name put on your mom's account? Unfortunately a business has no way to know that you are authorized to use the card. At my last job, I recall turning away customers because they attempted to use cards that were not in their name. It's for the cardholder's and business' safety.

[KellyHabersham]

I had major headaches with that sort of thing in the church office once - without getting into detail, things had not been documented when the official e-mail account had been originally set up, I was shut out of the account due to a computer crash, and probably spent over an hour on the phone with customer service reps trying to get things straightened out (mostly because all of the verification info they would ask for, I didn't have and had no way to get)

[HYHYBT]

I had an interesting time last month which I can only assume was an antifraud measure gone inexcusably wrong. I had to order something using my mom's card (with permission, of course) to be sent to me at my address. If the site had (in an open and honest way) refused to ship to a different person than the name on the card, or to a place other than the billing address, or whatever, I would have understood perfectly and made other arrangements. Instead, they accepted the information as given, and repeated it on the confirmation screen (the one after the charge has gone through that says "print for your records.") And THEN they changed the shipping information to match the billing, so a few minutes later I got a confirmation email that didn't match. They also would not answer my email asking which order confirmation was correct... and didn't ship the item until two days later. Meaning I'd wasted the money on overnight shipping *and* didn't know for sure where the package would be going until after it shipped (when order tracking became available.) And Mom lives two hours away, so it's a four-hour round trip.

[ladyneeva]

The anti-fraud measure we keep having the most trouble with is the whole "unusual activity" thing. We are usually living very much paycheck to paycheck -- get paid and within the hour 3/4ths of it is spent. Sure a lot of you have been there.

I understand that it looks suspicious when there is no activity for 2 weeks, then in one day the account gets hit for nearly a grand. I get it. And yes, there probably should be a call made to verify that you really did spend that much. The first few times. Not every other Friday for five years, and locking the card if the card holder does not happen to be home to take the call. And especially not locking it at 6pm on a Friday when none of your branches will be open until 8am Monday.

[jackfaire]

Is it possible to have your name put on your mom's account? Unfortunately a business has no way to know that you are authorized to use the card. At my last job, I recall turning away customers because they attempted to use cards that were not in their name. It's for the cardholder's and business' safety.

No for the same reason I can't have my own. I owe money to the bank and unfortunatly back child support and back rent take top priority.

I understand that but I could literally grab a girl out front of most places have her claim that is her name and they wouldn't even check ID. Unless they at least check ID it's pretty useless.

[ladyneeva]

Could you maybe link your Mom's account to a paypal account in her name, then sign up for a Paypal debit card and have her get a second card in your name?

Convoluted yes, but I was in a situation where I had to do exactly that and it worked very well. You can even set the card to only draw from what cash is on hand in the paypal account, so that you can't accidentally dip into your mother's money (if you're absent minded like me).

Sure having to do a wire transfer to the paypal account before you can get access to your money is a pain in the neck, but it might be a viable solution.

Another thing I've done when I didn't have an account of my own but had a moderate sum of money in someone else's account -- just use an ATM and eat the $1/$2 fee. Then you can pay cash everywhere... ATM's don't check that the person matches the card, they only care that you have the right pin number.

Again, a hassle and a pain in the ass... but at least you wouldn't need to worry about not being able to do something because of the rare times when someone actually is on the ball enough to make sure the name on the card at least matches the gender of the user.

[HYHYBT]

The anti-fraud measure we keep having the most trouble with is the whole "unusual activity" thing...every other Friday for five years

You'd think they'd have a better idea of "unusual activity", especially with as many others who do the same thing.

[jackfaire]

Could you maybe link your Mom's account to a paypal account in her name, then sign up for a Paypal debit card and have her get a second card in your name?

It's a moot point apparently I can use the verification code they gave and that is just as good.

[powerboy]

This is why I use a GreenDot card. I deposit my money into and am good to go.

[ladyneeva]

You'd think they'd have a better idea of "unusual activity", especially with as many others who do the same thing.

Yeah you'd think, but apparently not for some reason. Not that it is really a big issue now, being that my husband is unemployed and all. And that apparently experience is now a detriment to becoming employed rather than an asset... drives me NUTS.

It is like a lot of things in life... people have this ideal conception of "how it is", and that idea is like decades out of date now. They're living in a world where everyone has a 9-5 job and gets paid every Friday at 3pm and all of their bills can be easily paid using only half of each week's paycheck.

I believe the last time that was actually the norm was 1950 lol

[jackfaire]

I believe the last time that was actually the norm was 1950 lol

I don't think it has ever been the norm. Read The Outsiders and you can see how the 50s were often glorified as this idillyic time.

People who are well off and stable always seem to assume that the way they have it is how it is for everyone else. Hence why all movies and TV shows need to be good for the suburbs and they get to decide what is appropriate.