Alerts Can Enlist the Customer

In September 2004 research based on mystery shopping of 40 top U.S. banks and credit unions, online banking customer service representatives and Web sites, Javelin found:

• No banks offered integrated credit bureau alerts to address the most costly form of identity fraud (new-account fraud)
• Very few banks offered alerts for "unusual" payment card activity to address the most common form of identity fraud
• Spotty overall availability of alerts, with a general alerts focus on non-safety issues