The most important part of a credit card is the CVV. The CVV is requested in every transaction that is carried out with that card online. Most people don’t know what CVV stands for and gets confused when a merchant website ask for their CVV. Not to worry, cause we are here to tell you the meaning of CVV on credit card.
I have also been a victim of not knowing what CVV stands for. But I was so lucky the merchant had an image of a credit card which pointed to where I will see the CVV number. Let’s get straight to the point.
What is CVV?
CVV stands for Card Verification Value. It is a 3-4 digit number located at the back of a credit or debit card. Yeah, it is also available on debit cards too, not just credit card. The digit numbers act as an anti-fraud security feature. It’s a good way of verifying that you’re in possession of the said credit or debit card. Not all merchant request for the CVV number before carrying out a transaction.
The CVV still doesn’t protect the card owner from phishing scams. The CVV number should be treated with utmost and never be shared with anybody even family member. Using a distributed attack, a fraudster can possibly guess your CVV number. And since it’s a 3 digit numbers or 4 as the case may be, it’s not all that hard to figure out compared to if it was like 10 digit numbers.
Where is the CVV number on credit/debit card?
The CVV number is located at the back of the credit or debit card for companies like MasterCard, Visa, JCB, Diners Club and Discover. While for American Express cards, the CVV number is printed at the front and usually consist of 4 digit numbers.