CVV Full Form

With the rise in the digital marketing and plastic money, people started using more and more cards, be that an atm card to withdraw money or debit and credit cards to do various purchases both online and offline. And with the increase of the security parameters for the card holders against theft and forging money, people rely more on the plastic money and prefer to keep their cash with the bank. This has not only enabled people to do more purchases without actually paying the money but this practice has increased the flow of money in the market virtually. Thus this has proven to be beneficial for both the customer as well as the banks involved with it. Today there are more than billion of card holders around the globe who are raising a purchase page with the help of an unique number that is often provided at the back of the card as a CVV no. which is supposedly the most confidential part of any purchase done, specially with online purchase but not many people know its relevance or “what is the full form of CVV or what CVV stands for”. Thus this article solely discusses the relevance, importance and objectives of CVV numbers. Before discussing the technicality of this acronym it is important to know what is the full form of CVV and what does it indicate.

What is the Full Form of CVV?

CVV full form stands for “card verification value”. This is a unique code provided to ensure the safety of debit cards, credit cards as well as atm cards and are unique for each card issued by the respective banks. Thus card verification value is actually the CVV full form in ATM cards as well as CVV full form for banking purposes. It is the combination of a three digit number that is imprinted on the flip side of the ATM / debit / credit card that is found on the extreme right side of the signature strip for the visa as well as the mastercard. The initial part of the CVV number is hidden via a magnetic strip in the ATM card and only the last 3 digits of the four digits are available or can be seen. But while making the payments, all the four or three digits are required to be punched in, in order to complete the transaction. The main purpose to embrose a CVV on a card is to provide a unique identification of the card holder and to minimise any kind of fraud. Other CVV full names are also known as card verification code which is a CVV code full form. It is also known as the Card security code that is CSC. All the cards have their CVV or CSC codes imprinted on the backside of the card except American Express. On American Express cards, famously known as (AMEX), the four digit number is usually printed on the front of the card.

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Characteristics of CVV

There are few major characteristics of Card Verification Code that are stated below:-

• Unlike with any other bank card numbers this CVV code is not imprinted on any invoice because it is meant to be a personal security number only for the cardholder and nobody else.

• Credit card firms or the banks offering the credit cards have their own cvv code names such as for Visa cards it is CVV2, for mastercard labels it is CVC2 and it is marked CID for american express. 

• The card verification value number (cvv number full form) is different from the pin number that is set in case of ATM cards. Thus it is important to note that one should never fill one’s pin number if asked to fill in card verification value (CVV full form).

• Unlike CVV number pin numbers of the card are used to express one’s card while paying bills in hotels or purchasing from a mall but during online purchase only CVV no. needs to be filled in order to carry forward the transaction.

Protection Against Fraud

Since debit and credit cards are mostly used for online purchases or transactions and virtual payment gateways, it becomes really easy for the fraudents to access the online information of the account holder via card details. In order to make such payment safer CVV no. was introduced. It is made in such a way that it remains as a secure number for the card and any virtual payment gateway is designed in a way that it is incapable of restoring any CVV number on its portal for later use as it is a penalised offence under the per payment card industry data security standards. Therefore, the vendors involved in the purchase or any third party cannot have access to the CVV number even if they have complete information about the card. Thus it makes it very secure for the customer to use debit or credit cards using CVV number without worrying about any fraud. So even if there is any breach in data security system of the companies issuing the card or in case of any major network failure of the concern bank, the  card verification code (CVV long form) cannot be retrieved from the network as it has no stored database neither available with the card issuing company nor with the bank. Thus it almost makes it impossible to complete any transaction without knowing the CVV of that particular card.

How Does CVV No. Work?

CVV number is actually a security code that is provided with any new card (credit / debit / atm) that has been issued by the card issuing company or the banks so that the card is protected against any frauds or thefts while doing virtual transactions. This is basically a four digit code that comes with the purchase of the card and is mentioned in the document provided as the detailed information about the card. The fourth digit is imprinted under a magnetic strip that is provided behind the card. The remaining three digits that are visible on the magnetic strip at the right end of the signature of the holder is required for the transaction. When the payment gateway proceeds to the final translation, the secured site asks for the CVV of the card with which the payment is rised. After punching in the cvv for virtual payment it connects with the bank account against that card and a payment memo is generated with the concerned bank. After the transaction is completed, the CVV code is automatically erased from the database of the payment gateway.

Limitations of CVV Number

Transactions with all merchants do not require CVV numbers. But few students having the card number and its expiry date can try to acquire the CVV number of the card by which it becomes easy to make purchases or withdraw all the money from the account it is linked with. Thus even CVV numbers are susceptible to such fraudulent transactions when the scammers use fake accounts or email ids of the banks in order to acquire sensitive information about one’s account that mostly include CVV numbers as the virtual payment methods have taken a rise in the past few decades. Some of the very common scams are spoof texts or calls pretending to be initiated from the credit card companies or banks asking for the details of the card including the CVV numbers. Some of the fraudulent calls also include special offers or free gifts as a winning prize against the card used for the last purchase that ask the person in concern to fill in the details of their transaction that ask for the CVV code as well. Thus there are certain ways and methods to protect the card and those are:

• Do not put any photograph of the card on any public platform online.

• To install anti-virus or anti-theft softwares in order to protect the system from getting hacked that might lead to the leakage of all the private information stored in the system.

• Always make sure that the transaction portal is secured with the url such as “http:// security”. Otherwise just avoid making payments from any site whose payment gateway is not secured and is available to the public. Such sites are not end-to-end encrypted hence can easily be accessed by anyone over the internet.

• Strictly avoid any solicited request made to acquire sensitive information about the card and the card holder’s account.