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Here’s a message greeting customers of Bonneville Bank in Provo, Utah. “Alert! Due to the high amounts of fraudulent card activity in California, Florida, and Georgia, you will be required to use your PIN number for Debit Card transactions in these states.  No signature transactions will be allowed.” It’s potentially a “get tough on fraud” move that could be coming soon to a bank and debit card near you.

As reported by Bank Info Security and Bank Technology News, Bonneville, with help of processor First Data Corp., is drawing a line in the sand to fight debit-card fraud.

Bonneville’s move to PIN-only in key states is catching the eye of industry analysts for two reasons.

First, most banks dealing with fraud typically keep things like this quiet. But Bonneville Bank is being very open about the fraud-fighting move. The alert is featured prominently on its home page.

Second, the bank could be cutting off an interchange revenue stream. Typically, signature-based transactions can earn issuers more money based on size of the debit transaction. Signature-based debit transactions are processed through credit-card networks, and could take from two to three days to be debited from one’s account.

PIN debit transactions are usually cheaper to process (sometimes half the cost of signature-debit), plus the consumer can get cash back at the point of sale. PIN debit transactions access one’s bank account via the EFT (electronic funds transfer) network almost immediately.

At a time when some banks like JP Morgan Chase actually actively promote use of signature-based debit transactions (as do other banks which offer checking-with-rewards programs), Bonneville’s move to PIN only is raising industry eyebrows since it’s usually unheard of for a bank to consider fraud losses severe enough to shut off a revenue stream like signature-based debits.

As reported in Bank Technology News, “All I can think of is that the fraud was so high that the lost interchange revenue is worth it compared to the cost of issuing new accounts,” said Avivah Litan, a vice president and analyst at market research company Gartner Inc.

Bank Info Security reported that most banks and credit unions are leaning more on behavioral analytics to determine whether certain debit transactions should be approved or denied. “Usually you have a finer-grained fraud strategy, where you would look at particular zip codes, particular transaction volumes,” said Mike Urban, senior director of global fraud for FICO. “You don’t usually block an entire state.”

Bank Technology News says Bonneville’s signature debit block has been in place for over a month without a clear date for it to expire. “This is a shotgun approach,” says Brian Riley, a research director in the bank-cards practice at TowerGroup. “If this type of fraud is affecting other banks, “I think you’ll see a much more rifled strategy.”

Meanwhile, what’s a debit-card consumer to do? Practice your signature and memorize your PIN number, just in case.