Telefonica launches mobile identity service for travelers
Sunday, 27 Sep, 2015
0
Spanish telecom giant Telefonica, in collaboration with mobile identity company TeleSign recently rolled out a new service for banks and credit card firms to verify travellers’ overseas card payments.
Called ‘Travel Alerts,’ the service ties the attempted transaction with the card holder’s location based on a mobile phone signal.
Once a mobile phone is relaying signals in a new country that information is passed to the bank or credit card firm in real time for additional verification.
Users simply opt-in by proving the financial institution with the mobile phone number and the service can be switched off by the user at any time.
It works with even basic handsets and without switching on data roaming.
"Given all the strong fraud prevention benefits and customer experience improvements seen in trials, we now want to help create a standard that is used by multiple mobile carriers and banks across the world," said Phil Douty, director of big data monetisation at Telefónica.
It is not the first such location-based verification service to hit the market.
Visa launched a smartphone app this year called Visa Mobile Location Confirmation, which basically works in the same way but narrows down the location in a much more specific way – the handset is required to be at the location of the point of sale for payment to be authorized.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Clearing CSS/JS assets' cache... Please wait until this notice disappears...
Updating... Please wait...
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Higher departure tax and visa cost, e-arrival card: Japan unleashes the fiscal weapon against tourists
Cyclone in Sri Lanka had limited effect on tourism in contrary to media reports
Singapore to forbid entry to undesirable travelers with new no-boarding directive
Euromonitor International unveils world’s top 100 city destinations for 2025