Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by LaminatorX on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-factor-indebted-nation dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"MasterCard is partnering with mobile technology company Syniverse. The two will deliver a service to fight credit-card fraud by linking the user's card with the user's mobile phone. This will be an opt-in service and it is still in pilot-phase. Geolocation data will be key in making this work; the person will need to have both the phone and card. In order to complete any card transaction the user will need to have that mobile device switched on to a specific geolocation while abroad. A credit card user's point-of-sale details will be correlated with the geolocation of the mobile device. The true location will be identified, reducing the likelihood that criminals are able to buy goods with stolen cards."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Ezber Bozmak on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:36PM

    by Ezber Bozmak (764) on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:36PM (#9202)

    If you are going to require that they have a phone with a live data connection at the point of sale, just send them a message asking them to confirm the transaction. That's at least as secure - probably more so because some number of people are going to have a password on their phone. So if the phone gets stolen, the GPS still works without a password but getting in to respond to the confirmation request will require a password for some percent of users. Plus there is the problem of GPS being flaky inside buildings.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by RobotMonster on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:59PM

      by RobotMonster (130) on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:59PM (#9207) Journal

      This location-based system doesn't seem like it can work with online retailers, either.
      Your message-based suggestion, on the other hand, would.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:00PM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:00PM (#9226) Journal

      Inside of buildings is pretty hopeless, especially on malls and places that use big metal buildings. If they had an app that sent position every once in a while, then they would be able to know that the last place they saw the phone was in the parking lot.
      That would probably be good enough.

      On the other hand, if they got rid of the GPS requirement, and just went with connectivity of any sort, then simple gsm network connectivity would put you at least in the radius of the same cell tower, and if the store/mall had free wifi you could connect via that.

      But realistically, this just seems like a big annoyance for card users.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mojo chan on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:54AM

        by mojo chan (266) on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:54AM (#9535)

        Inside of buildings is pretty hopeless, especially on malls and places that use big metal buildings.

        Not at all. Even though it can't get your exact location it knows the general area you are in, not least by which cell mast it is talking to. This information is enough to provide local results for Google searches or allow a website to give you the nearest branch of a shop. For credit card transaction verification as long as they can tell you are not miles away from where the retailer is that should be good enough to prevent a large amount of fraud.

        --
        const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:36PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:36PM (#9203) Homepage

    Crooks, let that be a lesson to you - to steal the phone along with the credit cards. Hell, just snatch the whole purse.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:57AM

      by mojo chan (266) on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:57AM (#9537)

      If you are robbed the onus is on you to report the loss of the card to the bank as soon as possible, otherwise you become liable for the fraudulent transactions. This is only aimed at stopping cases where cards are skimmed, say by a modified ATM or payment terminal. In such cases the criminals either steal the card by pick-pocketing so you don't notice and immediately cancel it, or simply clone it with information taken from the skimmer.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Boxzy on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:40PM

    by Boxzy (742) on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:40PM (#9204) Journal

    New phone technology! report that didn't startle me with spying and stalking implications.

    --
    Go green, Go Soylent.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FakeBeldin on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:53PM

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Saturday March 01 2014, @07:53PM (#9205) Journal

    Apart from the obvious privacy problems, this scheme kind of needs a data connection to work.
    Does Mastercard have any idea how high data roaming fees are?

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:42PM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:42PM (#9242) Journal

      Well, its opt in.

      If data roaming is something you can't afford, just opt out.
      Chances are the transaction will go thru if they can't reach your phone at all, and would only be blocked if your phone was in Iowa and your card was swiped in Las Vegas.

      But realistically, data roaming is just not that expensive anymore, and the amount of data they would have to send is probably already collected and uploaded to either Google or Apple.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 1) by Hawkwind on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:49PM

        by Hawkwind (3531) on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:49PM (#9245)

        Like grandparent I see this as a problem. My family's biggest issue with credit card companies is getting transactions to go through when overseas. OK, actually when we're in one specific country where my wife and kids are dual citizens. I wonder if we could have two cell phones ties to one card?

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Saturday March 01 2014, @10:17PM

          by frojack (1554) on Saturday March 01 2014, @10:17PM (#9260) Journal

          Have you ever looked into Chipped card? [visa.com]

          On her last trip to the UK, my wife was advised to get a chipped card. Pretty much everywhere but the US uses these, and its going to be mandatory in the US soon too.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hankwang on Saturday March 01 2014, @08:26PM

    by hankwang (100) on Saturday March 01 2014, @08:26PM (#9214) Homepage

    Great! As if a stolen phone wasn't enough, now my credit card is blocked as well!

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 01 2014, @08:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 01 2014, @08:38PM (#9219)

    "No."

    That didn't bother her personally, she just had to ask.

    I could save quite a lot of money if I used a store loyalty card such as that of Safeway's, but I know damn well how data-driven marketing works. Today most people call it "analytics". That's why I replaced my /etc/hosts file with the one supplied by Someone Who Cares [someonewhocares.com]

    0.0.0.0 hosted-pixel.com
    0.0.0.0 www.hosted-pixel.com
    0.0.0.0 cdn.hosted-pixel.com

    There are quite a few websites these days that load very, very slowly even over a cable modem, because half of the URLs on each of their pages are Javascript sources consisting only of a single newline character, but with a huge, long list of query parameters in its URL.

    "Do you know who Edward Snowden is?"

    "No."

    Perhaps she lives under a rock.

    "He's a former CIA employee, as well as a former employee of a National Security Agency contractor. Edward Snowden is the reason I don't have a Safeway card."

    No response. Perhaps I sound like a 9/11 truther or UFO enthusiast.

    I write down http://www.edwardsnowden.com/ [edwardsnowden.com] on a piece of paper then force it into her unwilling hands.

    "Check out that website, and you'll burn your own Safeway card."

    I've been out of work for a while, so I've been living in my mother's basement while I look for work. But I just found some. It's remote, but the client use a bank that has a branch here in Vancouver. So I won't deposit my paychecks, I'll cash them then hide the banknotes under my bed or something.

    Real Soon Now I'll be renting a room, and paying cash for it, as well as paying $375.00 per month for a private desk at NetSpace [nedspace.com] so I don't have to hang out on Starbucks WiFi so much.

    Just now I bought a Grande Pike's Place, and handed the Starbucks gift card that Aunt Peggy gave me for my birthday to the barista, as well as a five-dollar bill.

    "There's not much left on my card. Can I pay the difference with cash?"

    "Sure."

    She handed me my coffee, a receipt and my card back. But she didn't give me any change, despite that the Grande drips with Washington State Sales Tax cost just $2.10.

    I stared down at the card and my receipt with a puzzled expression.

    "Oh, with the coffee and the card reload it came to $X.YY."

    "Ah! I'm sorry. I didn't want a reload. I meant to pay cash for what the card was unable to cover."

    She got very flustered. She's young, she's real nice, I'll only be tracked by Starbucks Corporation for a couple more days.

    "It's completely cool, don't worry about it! I buy a Grande drip here every single day."

    However I also use their WiFi. I have to as Mom only has dialup and refuses to let me use my own money for a cable modem. That's why I installed LinkLiar [github.com] to randomize the MAC address of my MacBook Pro's Airport 802.11x card.

    Not every 802.11x controller has a soft MAC address, but many do. On Linux or BSD, you may be able to set it with ifconfig. Older Mac OS X revisions had a command-line program whose name escapes me just now, that one could set one's MAC with, but it doesn't do that anymore.

    LinkLiar is in no way reliable. I don't think that's actually LinkLiar's fault, but that of either the kernel, the Airport driver, or the controller chip. Apple always calls it "Airport", "Airport Extreme" or "Airport Express" however they are always changing the actual chips without ever telling anyone that they have done so.

    LinkLiar will only work if Airport is powered on at a cold boot, but is configured in the System Preferences not to automatically associate - that is, connect - with any SSIDs. You'll need to see four gray arcs - or bars - in the Airport icon in your OS X menu bar.

    Before you associate with an SSID, use LinkLiar's System Preferences pane to randomize your MAC. Watch carefully as you do this; it's attempt to so randomize does not always "stick". If it fails, you'll need to shut down then do a cold boot, then try again.

    Remember kids:

    "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."

    Ask your bank if they have any two-dollar bills, or if you can order some in. I have a Bicentennial Commemorative two-dollar bill in my wallet. I never spend them, not unless I'm starving, as was the case when I tearfully - I mean I was damn near screaming as I explained to the waitress - spent my last two-dollar bill on a slice of cheese pizza.

    On the back is John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence". The original hangs in a dark room in the Capital Rotunda, in Washington DC, lit by a very dim light so that the oil paint will last forever.

    Of the five first and so most-honored founders standing before the signing table just before they actually signed, fourth from the left is a tall guy with a tall forehead.

    I'm a tall guy with a tall forehead too.

    That's my Uncle Roger Sherman on that back of the two-dollar bill.

    While exceedingly uncommon to find in circulation, they still are in circulation and are still legal tender.

    I'm just recently now, starting to get pissed off.

    • (Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:05PM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:05PM (#9228) Homepage Journal

      I should not drink and post.

      He offers a choice of 127.0.0.1 and 0.0.0.0 blackholes.

      I use the zeroes because I run a localhost Apache for use in designing my website [warplife.com] without having to be online. It's better than local file:/// URLs because I can use server-side includes, as well as to use Validator S.A.C. for OS X to validate my markup, with the includes being included.

      Were I to use the 127.0.0.1 hosts file, I'd have vast quantities of error log reports every time I blackholed my hosted-pixel colleagues.

      However 0.0.0.0 does not work on some platforms, so try it out for yourself. If it does not work then use the 127.0.0.1 file.

      Extra Credit: install the hosts file for your friends and family.

      Please don't advise nontechnical folk to monkey with their hosts files. Just explain why they need to let you do it for them.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:00AM

      by Snotnose (1623) on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:00AM (#9282)

      I like the discounts (typically 25%) but don't like being tracked. I have a friend who doesn't care about being tracked. So I use their landline phone number, they use their cellphone phone number, they have the password for my account, and we're all happy.

      Of course, I'm not really getting a 25% discount every week. I'm paying a premium to maintain some semblance of privacy. I've got a Food4less a mile from my house with prices matching the Von's "discount" price, but I don't like shopping there.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:07AM

        by Angry Jesus (182) on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:07AM (#9309)

        If you have ever paid with a credit card or a check then you have lost any privacy you had with that loyalty card. They cross-reference payment methods to figure out who you are because, from their perspective, trying to cloak your identity with a false address / name / phone-number is the same as someone who has moved and didn't tell them.

        FWIW, I make it a rule to simply avoid all stores that have loyalty cards - they simply don't get my money. Part of the problem is that they jack the prices up so that the loyalty card price is "normal" - compare to places like Trader Joes, ALDI, Sprouts or a Super Walmart (with grocery store inside) and you'll see that their prices are roughly the same as the loyalty-card price at the other places. Of course you can pay a premium at a place like Whole Foods, but in theory you also get a premium product for the money unlike the typical loyalty-card grocery store.

    • (Score: 2) by mojo chan on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:01PM

      by mojo chan (266) on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:01PM (#9541)

      Your link was to the wrong "someone who cares". Try: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/zero/ [someonewhocares.org]

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:26PM (#9235)

    My VISA has forced me to register my phone with them; they send a TAN to the phone whenever I buy something online, and require me to enter it.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:37PM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Saturday March 01 2014, @09:37PM (#9239)

    So are they going to pay for the roaming charges?