QUAKE DONATIONS GET STOPPED BY MISTAKE
Some Web donations to victims of the Haiti earthquake are inadvertently running into roadblocks because automated bank systems are flagging them as fraud. Crooks sometimes use online donations to "test" stolen credit card details, causing some banks to block unusual first-time payments to charities. The BBC says customers can contact their banks to unblock payments.
GPS LOCATES BANK ROBBERS IN ILLINOIS
When two crooks recently robbed a branch of TF Bank in Calmut City, Ill., the bags of cash also included $9,000. Not a bad haul, but the bags also contained two GPS trackers hidden inside. The police followed the signals and arrested the men at the home of one of their parents in about an hour. Banks in the state have been using GPS technology in this manner for about two years.
IS SUNTRUST LOSS AN I.T. WARNING FOR VISA?
MasterCard recently won the debit card business of SunTrust away from Visa, and the relative ability of the two card companies to analyze card activities played a big role. Hugh Gallagher, a SunTrust svp, told BTN sister publication American Banker the institution will be able to offer capabilities through MasterCard, such as analytic tools that will allow debit marketing efforts to be refined - a capability analysts say is not available through Visa. While SunTrust did participate in a Visa test of card activity alerts, Gallagher told the newspaper that SunTrust was moving forward with its own alert service.
