Keeping its PULSE on Debit Fraud

Discover’s PULSE network is using its scale to up the fight against debit fraud. A new debit card fraud detection system, DebitProtect, is being rolled out to analyze and flag suspicious transactions for the more than 4,400 banks and credit unions in the PULSE family. Transactions that fall outside a customer’s normal range of use, or happen to meet the patterns of fraud activity identified in DebitProtect’s risk-scoring methodology, can trigger alerts to institutions, which can use the data in conjuction with other PULSE anti-fraud measures like card security code checking and targeted authorization blocking. Some early beta results were encouraging, including a first-day wipeout of $13,000 in attempted fraudulent transactions through First Financial Bankshares’ technology services unit. The data tracked by DebitProtect will be used to continually refine fraud-scoring models as PULSE tries to stem the estimated $662 million in debit card fraud it tracked as late as 2005.