Let’s consider what happens if a criminal is in possession of someone else’s identity. They go to a financial institution’s Online Banking enrollment page and they fill out the enrollment form using the stolen information.
Since the criminal entered in all of the information needed to enroll, they also have everything needed to login if the financial institution allows immediate access. The criminal would have instant access to the victim’s account and may be able to initiate transfers out of the account. They also have access to information typically used to validate a person’s identity, such as: “What was the amount or date of your last payroll direct deposit?”
With the Third Federal system, we delay the ability to immediately gain access to first time enrollees. Approximately 24 hours after enrollment, we send an email with the login information. In addition, we mail out the same information to the mailing address we already had on record for the customer. Even if the mail is intercepted, the letter does not have all of the information needed to login. The criminal would need to be able to intercept the postal letter as well as enroll online. We use a similar system when someone enrolls for online funds transfers.
Our system has prevented fraudulent online enrollments from proceeding to full account access because the true account holder got the letter and called us immediately. In many cases the account holder had no clue their identity had been compromised.