You could achieve the same effect by mailing a confirmation number via snail-mail. This would not fix one of the fraud problems - the hijacking of valid account

You could achieve the same effect by mailing a confirmation number via snail-mail. This would not fix one of the fraud problems - the hijacking of valid accounts in good standing. It would only affect fraudsters psychologically, as the police would generally be unwilling to deal with crimes of less than $3000.