Card Validation Code 2 (CVC 2) and

Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) Security Features

MasterCard’s CVC 2 and Visa’s CVV2 are valuable fraud-prevention tools that help protect merchants who process card-not-present transactions. The three-digit values help verify that a customer has a genuine MasterCard or Visa card and that the account number is legitimate. With this information, merchants can make better decisions about non-face-to-face sales. Visa estimates that the use of CVV2 will reduce fraud-related chargebacks by as much as 26%. Best of all, our merchants will soon be able to download the necessary software upgrades and benefit from these security features free of charge.

CVC 2 and CVV2 are indent printed on the back of MasterCard and Visa cards. These values appear in the signature panel, following the 16-digit account number. They are not encoded in the magnetic stripe and they do not print on sales receipts. The codes should be used only during authorization requests.

Merchants may not store CVC 2 or CVV2 values for any reason.

To request CVC 2 or CVV2 validation, merchants must submit the following information:

• Account number
• Expiration date
• CVC 2 or CVV2 value
• Transaction dollar amount

Issuing banks check the values against the credit card information and return "match" or "no match" responses.

• Effective March 1999, issuers and acquirers must be certified to process authorization requests containing CVV2 data. CVC 2 processing became mandatory on April 1, 2001.
• Merchants are not required to submit these values, as interchange rates are not affected.

Merchants should note that CVC 2 and CVV2 processing helps you decide if customers are legitimate. Equally important, issuers will no longer be able to successfully impose chargebacks on mail/telephone order (MO/TO) and non-SET electronic-commerce sales transactions if they fail to process the CVC 2 or CVV2 data transmitted to them by merchants.

All LinkPoint payment terminals and LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway software currently support CVV2. Other processing equipment may also be compatible.

Merchants who use LinkPoint Select API (version 5.4) can prompt cardholders for their CVV2 information online. Virtual LinkPoint and LinkPoint Basic merchants can request the value through LinkPoint Central.