Top-of-mind Questions Verify Identity

Banks and other financial institutions are finding new ways to authenticate new customers and to verify your identity online. One way is to ask you a computer-generated series of questions, that only you should be able to answer quickly and correctly. For online applications, this was first widely used in verifying identity online when you'd request a credit report on yourself. Here's an example:

You have an account with which of these three companies...
A. Best Buy
B. Sears
C. Target

You once lived on which of these three streets?
A. Oak Tree
B. Western
C. Magnolia

Which of these companies financed a recent car purchase you made?
A. General Motors Acceptance Company
B. Southwest Credit Union
C. Pacific Auto Finance

Questions like these are combined with other details, such as your date of birth, social security number and credit card number to identify you, and hopefully, to prevent identity theft. Here are some of the other tools they can employ to prevent identity fraud.
11:27:35 AM