Smart e-Money, a unit of Philippines-based Smart Communications has unveiled a mobile service to prevent automated teller machine (ATM) and card fraud.

The new service, LockByMobile will provide security to card users by allowing them to "lock" and "unlock" the use of their cards for ATM withdrawal, over-the-counter or point-of-sale purchase or online transactions.

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Smart e-Money president and chief executive officer Orlando Vea said: "The new service provides an additional layer of security by enabling a prepaid, debit or credit card holder to block and unblock the use of the funds in their cards through a few clicks on their mobile phones".

Vea added: " Given recent developments, LockByMobile is a timely solution that can be quickly implemented by banks and mobile operators and provide greater peace of mind to payment card users".

The issue of payment card fraud through security breaches of customer information system has been raised by many companies and the US retailer Target reported in December 2013 that hackers had penetrated its network and stolen the payment-card information of over 40m customers.

Adobe Systems also reported a "sophisticated" cyber-attack on its network that managed to compromise confidential customer information of several tens of millions of its customers.

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Global losses through payment card fraud were estimated at around $11.3bn in 2013, up 15% from 2012, with the US accounting for nearly half of the total.

In the Philippines, authorities said incidents of ATM theft increased in 2013, with banks losing as much as PHP220m ($4.9m).

 

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