April 15, 2007

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  NEWS: New Fraud Alerts at Lloyd's

   

  British credit giant Lloyds TSB rolled out a new fraud alert service last month, which generates automated phone messages to consumers when fraud is suspected on their charge accounts. British financial experts lauded the move as having come at the right time, as the ever-growing specter of phone and internet fraud is starting to become a serious (and not misguided) paranoia for many. Britain's "chip and PIN" system, rolled out to great critical fanfare at the end of 2005, has made a sizeable dent in the instance of annual complaints of identity theft, but scam artists are always innovating new techniques of defrauding consumers – and phone/internet scams are the wave of fraud's future, apparently. Lloyds is counting on the new system to make consumers feel a little safer with their bank.
  
  The big boon of an automatic notification system comes when one considers the fact that most people have no idea when their account is initially used for fraud. By the time they figure it out – by examining a bank statement, or receiving a letter from their card company expressing concern over huge unpaid balances – it's usually too late, and the scam artists have merrily moved along to the next sucker. Under the new system, consumers will be able to take action immediately against suspected fraud, by placing alerts on their account and/or contacting pertinent authorities.
  
  Lloyds will be covering all debit cards as well as all credit cards with the alerts, meaning that all their customers will be protected. Experts caution consumers to not get complacent with the knowledge of the alert protection, however, and to still make sure to take relevant precautions against fraud occurring in the first place.
  
  
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