CVV numbers

Owen DeLong owen at delong.com
Sun Jun 10 08:02:23 UTC 2012


On Jun 9, 2012, at 1:36 PM, Jay Ashworth wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Owen DeLong" <owen at delong.com>
> 
>> How does having the CVV number prove the card is in my possession?
>> 
>> I have memorized the CVV in addition to the 16 digits of the cards I
>> commonly use and routinely enter them into online ordering without
>> retrieving the card.
>> 
>> What prevents a fraudster from writing the CVV down along with the
>> other card data?
> 
> Nothing, but lots of fraud scenarios don't involve a bad actor taking
> physical posession of your card: magstripe skimmers and charge-slip 
> carbons being only 2 off-hand examples.  Clearly, the percentage of fraud
> it blocks is more than the amount it costs.

The skimmers can use CVV1 and bypass the CVV2 protection in most
cases (though that requires them to gen up a fake or fraudulent card and
do card present transactions which does add risk for them).

I haven't seen a charge slip carbon in so long that I find it hard to believe
these would remain a significant factor today.

It costs almost nothing, so a few fraudulent transactions blocked is probably
enough. That doesn't change the fact that I believe there have to be more
effective methods that wouldn't cost much more.

Owen





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