Dear Cardholder: we are suspicious of this transaction on your card. Please click YES if this is an authentic transaction you initiated, or NO if you did not. The transaction was rejected.
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click the NO button *
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We are going to lock that account. Please click here to initiate and authenticate a request for a replacemen card. Link.
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We are going to send a code to your phone. Please confirm your phone number.
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No, that isn’t a cell phone, you can’t send a text to it. If you have to send a text, I’m willing to give you a cell phone number but I don’t want it entered as associated with this account.
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We can do that. OK, I’m sending the code now. Please read it back to me…
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928946324
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OK thank you. Now I need to call you on the telephone. What telephone number should I call you at?
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212-555-1212
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OK I’m calling you now…hello? This is XXXX from ZZZZ, your code is 578465421 and you need to enter that …
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Hmm… my screen prompt now says that phone number is not approved as registed to your account. Do you have any other phone number I can make a call to?
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Well, you can call the same number you sent the text to. I don’t like to use it as a phone but as long as it’s only for the duration of this call, go ahead.
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Sir, my screen prompt says that that phone is not properly registered either. And it says that’s the maximum number of attempts, so you will have to call back tomorrow to try again.
I resent the assumption that every phone number is a mobile/cell number. Along with it of course are associated costs of perhaps several hundred $ for the phone as well as data fees & what have you. Not everyone can afford the luxury. However I do understand that ownership has become almost a necessity that’s been forced upon us.
I’ve had occasions that people have claimed to have sent a text confirming appointments or whatever, without giving thought to maybe, just maybe they aren’t dialing a phone capable of retrieving texts. Even if they were, it could be a couple days or so before I saw it (unless I were expecting).
I have a mobile but don’t feel the urgency to have it attached to me 24/7. Actually I rarely use the thing other than when away from my desk for several hours or more.
Just a quick rant.
And yeah, to the OP, ‘security’ has become a good source of frustration. Expect it to get worse.
Edit: A bank I use gives 3 or 4 options for security. Impressive.
Security at its most ridiculous was government. It took almost 1/2 hour to set up an account, during the course of which 3 or 4 codes had to be entered as well as other questions. A friend suffered through the same experience so it wasn’t just me.
So, someone tried to use your credit card fraudulently, and due to two-factor authentication, it’s only an annoyance for you rather than a huge tragedy?
Oh lord, here go the Luddites again. Let’s moan about how not everyone has a nearly ubiquitous, nearly 30 year old technology.
Might as well bitch about how you can’t find VCR tapes in stores anymore.
That’s what I was thinking too- they dodged a bullet more than anything else. Even if it was kind of a pain in the ass. They should be grateful, not irritated.
That’s not what they said, they said not every number is a cell number. I had that problem when I got rid of my land line and tried to add a cell number as my primary. They kept trying to text my land line and would not accept using my cell to get rid of a number I no longer had.
Except I’ve been screwed by not being able to get a text while being away in Europe. I tried to rent a car online in Greece a few years ago to get an email saying was this you please log in to confirm. Well since I wasn’t on my computer they wouldn’t let me log in without getting 2FA via text only. Guess who couldn’t get a text in Greece.
I find 2FA a pain in the ass sometimes, but whatever, I can’t do anything about it. But there does need to be another way to get it without a cell phone/text as that is not always possible.
@Keith1seemed to be describing cell phones as a “luxury” that costs “several hundred $ for the phone as well as data fees & what have you” and has “been forced upon us.” As I said, almost everyone in America has a cell phone, so somehow even those on the lower end of the economic spectrum manage to afford them. (And there are low-cost options, including the government subsidized Lifeline program.)
My bank is the same. The only way to login to your account while overseas is to receive a code via text message. If you’re unaware of this and didn’t arrange for it beforehand you’re locked out of banking. This bank does have an app to spit out a temporary code, except the app has never worked from day one. Last I checked it had a 1 star rating on the play store. heh,heh. There needs to be additional options. The bank I’ve moved a lot of my business to provides options besides just receiving a text.
To who commented on my post up-thread, you missed the point entirely. I can’t be bothered spelling it out.
I had a “we’ll send you a text” problem when I was in New Zealand. I had put a travel notification flag on my card online (and verified it with a service rep) two weeks before I left but somehow that got screwed up. So my card was being declined when making hotel reservations which was inconvenient to say the least.
So I called the credit card’s international help line and they said they didn’t see the travel flag on my account. Since I was using a travel eSIM I couldn’t get the verification text. I ended up having to answer a bunch of security questions like the ones you answer to get a credit report. Major pain in the butt.
When I got home I went online to check my account and sure enough the travel flag was there…with the exact text I input I filed it before I left.
