Elan Brings Two-Way Fraud Alerts To Debit Cards

Payments provider Elan Financial Services announced that along with Ondot Systems, the leading provider of mobile-based card services, they have enhanced the My Mobile Money app so that it now offers two-way fraud alerts for Elan processed debit cards.

With real-time alerts via My Mobile Money, financial institutions can communicate directly with debit cardholders to confirm transactions, which will not only reduce the risk of a payment being declined due to fear of fraudulent activity, but can also prevent false positive card blocks.

A leading credit card issuer, Elan provides transaction processing, terminal driving and monitoring and support services for more than 34,000 ATMs nationwide, and supports more than 13 million ATM and debit cards.

“Our financial institution clients are always looking for new ways to provide their debit cardholders with fraud prevention options,” said Troy Cullen, president of Elan. “By working with Ondot to provide a mobile fraud alert service, we are empowering consumers to keep an eye on their card activity, whether they are shopping at their local grocery store or reviewing their transactions.”

The alerts also serve as a timesaver, as it reduces the need for cardholders to call their financial institutions to report fraud. Consumers will simply be able to review recent transactions and flag those that appear fraudulent directly from the My Mobile Money app. Once a transaction is flagged, Elan is notified to investigate the transaction and, if needed, replace the card.

“Traditionally, when Elan has reached out to their financial institutions’ cardholders via phone to alert them to potentially fraudulent activity, they have less than a 10% chance of reaching cardholders on the first try. This results in higher rates of false positive fraud blocks and missed fraudulent activity,” said Vaduvur Bharghavan, president and director of Ondot Systems. “Through our integration with Elan, the notification of a potential fraud situation is in real-time through a mobile app push notification, which significantly increases the contact rate and helps financial institutions and their cardholders work together to identify fraud, without cutting access to their debit cards.”