'Virtual' Credit Cards Protect Online Shoppers
Internet shopper Roger So relies on a 16-digit tool to prevent his personal information from being stolen: a single-use, "virtual" credit-card number.
When shopping online, the 52-year-old information-technology consultant periodically uses this randomly generated number -- provided by his credit-card issuer, Citigroup Inc. -- in place of his actual account information because, he says, it "gives me one more line of security."
"I use it primarily with merchants that I'm dealing with for the first time," says Mr. So, a resident of Morristown, N.J.
In recent years, credit-card issuers have been offering virtual account numbers as weapons in the battle against identity theft, hoping to ease Web shoppers' fears about fraud. MBNA Corp. offers a substitute card number, which typically has the same number of digits as a regular credit-card number, free to its customers. Both Citigroup and Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services division are planning on enhancing features on similar products later this year.
In 2003, around 215,000 cases of identity theft, online as well as offline, were reported to the Federal Trade Commission, more than doubling from just two years ago.
At the same time, a greater amount of money is being spent online each year, increasing the potential for fraud. By 2007, about $104.5 billion -- representing more than 5% of total U.S. retail sales -- will be spent online on items such as clothes and electronics, according to JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corp. in Darien, Conn.
Financial-services companies are hoping that these tools will encourage more consumers to shop on the Web, potentially increasing credit-card revenue, while protecting themselves against loss due to fraud. Cardholders are typically not responsible for fraud-related transactions.
The one-time account numbers are easy enough to use. If your credit-card company offers the service, you probably need to sign up and register your card at the company's Web site. You may have to download software to your computer or come back to the site to get a new disposable account number before each purchase. In general, the number can be used only at one merchant, whether for a single purchase or for a service with a recurring monthly charge.
With Discover's Deskshop product, once you download the software, a virtual credit-card icon will pop up every time you get to the online checkout form at a retailer's Web site. You'll be asked whether you want to make the purchase using a single-use number whether you want to have your billing information entered automatically.
Virtual account numbers, however, can't be used for all transactions, since some require the actual credit card to be presented to claim purchases. The single-use number, by its nature, doesn't appear on your credit card and is typically linked to your account only through the issuer's system.
And while some companies have offered virtual account numbers for the past couple of years, they haven't yet caught on for many consumers. "It certainly has yet to capture the majority of [our] cardholders," says Jim Donahue, an MBNA spokesman. "But those who use it are very loyal to it."
American Express Co., one of the first to launch a single-use account number in 2000, phased out its Private Payments product earlier this year. "We didn't feel that, on an ongoing basis, it was necessary," says Judy Tenzer, an American Express spokeswoman. "There are already a number of safeguards for privacy and security out there."
虚拟信用卡为网上购物提供安全保障
网上购物者Roger So依靠一个16位数字的工具防止他的个人信息被盗，这就是虚拟信用卡号。
这位52岁的信息科技顾问在网上购物时，他时常会使用这个由他的信用卡发卡行提供的随机产生的数字，而不是其真实信用卡的帐号，他说，这是因为随机数字"给了他更多安全保障。"他的信用卡发卡行是花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)。
家住新泽西州莫里斯镇的So说，"我主要在和商家初次打交道时使用随机帐号。"
最近几年，信用卡发卡行将虚拟帐号作为防止个人信息被盗的一个武器，希望借此消除消费者对网上欺诈的担忧。MBNA Corp.向客户免费提供一个可替代的信用卡号，该号码的位数通常与普通信用卡号码的位数一样。花旗和摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的Discover Financial Services都计划在今年晚些时候进一步增强此类产品的功能。
美国联邦贸易委员会(Federal Trade Commission)称，2003年，在网络以及非网络世界，共发生215,000宗帐户信息被盗案件，是两年前的一倍还多。
与此同时，每年的网上消费金额日益庞大，这增加了欺诈案件发生的可能性。据Jupitermedia Corp.的JupiterResearch预计，到2007年，诸如衣服和电子用品等物品的网上消费金额将达到大约1,045亿美元，相当于美国总零售额的5%以上。
金融服务公司希望，这些安全工具将鼓励更多消费者在网上购物，这一方面可能会增加信用卡公司的收入，另一方面会保护其免遭欺诈案件带来的损失。持卡人通常不对欺诈交易负责。
这种一次性的帐号非常易于使用。如果你的信用卡公司提供这种服务，你可能需要在其公司网站注册并登记你的卡号。你或许需要在你的电脑上下载一个软件，或者在每笔交易之前到网站获得一个新的一次性帐号。一般而言，不论你是一次性付清购买还是每月分期付款，该帐号在一家商户只能使用一次。
如果你下载了Discover的Deskshop产品，每当你在零售商网站的结帐中心付款时，一个虚拟的信用卡图像就会出现，它将询问你打算用一次性数字付款，还是希望自动输入你的支付信息。 但是并非在所有交易中都能使用虚拟帐号，因为一些交易要求输入真实信用卡信息才能完成支付。你的信用卡上面并没有一次性帐号，只有当你使用发卡人系统时该一次性帐号才与你的真实帐号链接。
尽管一些公司在过去两年间提供了虚拟帐号，但是这一产品仍没有得到众多消费者的青睐。MBNA发言人Jim Donahue称，"这一产品目前还没有吸引到大量持卡人，但是已使用者十分钟情于这一产品。"
美国运通银行(American Express Co.)是2000年率先推出一次性帐号的银行之一，该银行今年年初淘汰了Private Payments产品。美国运通银行发言人Judy Tenzer说，"我们认为在当前阶段没有必要提供这一产品。网上已经有众多对隐私和安全性的保障措施。"
