What about swiping at the store? Does it make a difference in the type of swipe? The online CVV or CVC Verification Codes Purpose.
Not all stores allow the customers to “swipe” their own cards through the credit card reader machines (AKA “POS Machines”). It depends on the POS (point of sale) machines being used. Certainly the models that enable the customer to swipe are seen to be more private and ultimately safe. However over 90% of credit card fraud that is committed when purchasing at the store is not due to the sales clerk obtaining your information by actually swiping the card. Most of the time the sales clerk would find other means to obtain your credit card numbers if he or she really wanted to try and “pull something”. Yes it IS more secure, because usually you are asked to enter a PIN (personal identification number) when the customer is swiping. It doesn’t matter who does the swiping but who has the PIN. What matters is the PIN and or zip code that is asked for when using the card and not who is doing the “swiping” itself you see briansclub.cm. When purchasing online you are asked for your CVV /CVC code (a three or four digit security code found on the credit card itself). This is so the merchant and issuing bank know that you actually have the card in front of you. This is sort of the online answer to the PIN at the POS. Verifone is a major POS device manufacturer. The Verifone Vx510 and Vx570 POS machines do not allow the customer to “swipe”. It is meant for the sales clerk to actually do the swiping. This process uses ethernet connectivity over the same internet backbone as if you were sitting at home in front of your computer. The only difference here is that some of the transactions will actually be transmitted twice vs. as when you order from home (I explain this below). Many POS systems today do allow the customer to actually do the swiping. It depends on the store itself.
What about hackers? Am I at more risk to them or possibly more at risk to internet thieves intercepting my information by buying online?
As for the POS machines that do allow the customer to swipe and not the store clerk, they send and receive information behind firewalls just as if you were buying from home as well. The transaction information is stored on a server just as it would be if you were buying this item from home via the internet. It is no different in terms of firewalls and hacking. The information is still sent over a network when using your credit card at the store and the information will still be stored on a server.
Now how does your transaction information get sent twice when buying at the store?
When the swipe is made the transaction is “OK’d” however….the money is not yet sent to the acquiring bank (the bank stores). The transaction is just “OK’d” at this point. Later the department manager (at the end of the sales clerk/cashier’s shift, or the end of the managers shift) will again compare the transactions against the over-all totals for the cash register. Here is the second step for your transaction is sent. A second request is made from the store itself to the issuing bank. The issuing bank is your credit card bank. Almost all types of credit cards / credit card companies are working in conjunction or in unison with a bank or some sort of major financial institution. This is why you’ll see the bank or financial institution on the credit card itself. The issuing bank (the credit cards bank) then sends the money to the acquiring bank (store bank). That is actually twice your transaction data is sent out over the network from the store and at two separate times for each purchase made. If you are ordering products/services on the internet from home the two step process is usually the same…. However the second request would not be sent from your home computer to the issuing bank during the second step. Your home computers part is finished as soon as the purchase is made. What does this mean? This means there is that much less traffic containing your transaction data when purchasing online.
So in essence when buying using a credit card in the store your credit card transaction information is actually sent twice. If you were buying from home it would be only a single request coming from your computer. Then your part is finished. Less traffic with your data means less chance it will be intercepted.
Buying at the store leaves a paper trail.
When using a credit card at a store a “paper-trail” is created. At least two copies of the transaction are created automatically on hard copy (actual paper). Using your credit card at home there isn’t any local paper trail (unless of coarse you choose to print a receipt for your personal records. Still that would be only one hard copy created as opposed to when buying in most physical locations in which a the total of there will be a total of two.