The Shazam electronic funds transfer network has introduced a fraud-prevention service that enables debit card issuers to respond quickly to fraud trends by blocking select transactions.
Shazam’s Card Block service enables issuers to use an assortment of fraud characteristics to block transaction authorizations using a card’s bank-identification and primary-account numbers. For example, a financial institution could use such information to block a cardholder from conducting transactions in a certain country if it believes the fraud risk is high, says Dan Kramer, Shazam senior vice president of marketing and merchant services.
“It can be used in a post-fraud event, but we really see it as a prevention tool,” Kramer tells PaymentSource.
Shazam can make the service available as part of its product suite for financial institutions. Participating banks and credit unions would use a Shazam internal Web site to place authorization blocks from a drop down menu. The process takes minutes, and the block immediately would take affect on the selected card or cards.
That kind of timeliness can come into play in a number of different scenarios, Kramer says. “If a financial institution believes that a particular local merchant has been compromised, then it may choose to block transactions for that location, that chain or multiple outlets in the area,” he says.
A number of financial institutions tested the product during the past six months, but Kramer would not reveal the specific number or name the institutions. Shazam now plans to offer the service to its remaining 1,500 members.
