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AmEx To Offer "Disposable" Credit Card Numbers
A reader writes "American Express is going to allow card holders to access one-time use card numbers for purchases online. Not only could this cut down online credit card fraud but it might lead to anonymous purchases. " I'm not sure this gets us closer to totally anonymous purchasing, but it does mean that you can take more steps to protect yourself in online purchasing - now only one megacorp (Amex) could have your records!
VISA and AmEx have been kicking around ideas to do something equivalent to one time password cryptocards. This is a simple version of the same idea, without all the fancy hardware. If it works, expect the idea to take off with all the major card issuers.
What will probably happen later on is, you will be given an electronic card, with a special token embedded in the circuitry. When you want to use your credit card number online, instead you push a button and a small display tells you the cryptographically hashed version of the card, valuable for a single use over the next hour or so.
The hash function combines a real time clock value, the token, and a counter for each use.
The servers will have a copy of your token, know the time, and keep a local counter. Then the server can compare the crypto hash of your card. If they match, the transaction is authorised. Then later the billing department matches up your hashed number with the real number, and you see the charge show up on your bill.
There are a ton of other little details which the crypto card industry has worked out, but the system mostly works. Too bad this neat methodology will be patented to death, so only the big boys can play with it.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
I felt pretty safe buying online too -- Until somebody somewhere hijacked my card number, and I suddenly had over a $1000 worth of speakers and stereo equipment show up on my bill. No, I did not have to pay for it, and even if they caught the person who did it (a pretty good bet, since the moron also used it to pay his cell phone bill), I wouldn't know for sure that it was from an online purchase becuase they don't release any information about the investigation. But it makes you feel quite vulnerable, and does a lot to make you a little more cynical about tossing your card number around (it was an AmEx, by the way). So, I'm all for this because my security concerns are based on more than artificial worries.
Buying online is probably safer than buying in person. If you take the normal precautions (secure site that is known) you are almost guarenteed safety. Compare this with a restaurant. You eat your meal and give you card to Joe Waiter to carry away and do whatever he wants. No one steals credit cards off the internet, because it is hundreds of times easier to talk to your buddy who works at Denny's and ask him to get you some credit card receipts. People use stolen credit card numbers on the Net, they don't get them there...
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
(1) Turn off computer
(2) Go to retail outlets
(3) Pay cash
What Do the Numbers on My Credit Card Mean?
Although phone, gas and department stores have their own numbering systems, ANSI Standard X4.13-1983 is the system used by most national credit card systems. Here are what some of the numbers mean:
________________
They're - They are
Their - Belonging to them
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
What is this guy talking about? Offshore accounts are legal.. if used for legal purposes.
But anonymous and undeclared accounts are NOT legal. Also, any financial transaction over a certain threshold is illegal for a US citizen, period, unless the appropriate form is submitted to government by the financial institution. It seems to me that this technology can be very easily applied by anyone who gets a merchant account to achieve near-complete financial impenetrability for money transfers, aka "laundering".
And its not like these credit cards are going to be regulated any different then normal credit card
In theory no. But in reality, I believe that the technology as described allows for very easily circumvention of existing financial regulations.