Re: American Express disposable card numbers

[Ian Farquhar - NSW SE Team Leader]

One has to wonder if it is indeed "consumer concern" about credit
card misuse which Amex is targetting, or the problem all card vendors
are facing with disputed sales.

If Amex wraps an authentication mechanism around the one time card
number, then it is much harder for the card holder to deny responsibility
for a purchase.  The commonest (indeed stereotypical) situation is
the adult site subscription made late at night, which is disputed when
the wife sees the bill, and the purchaser finds it domestically
convenient to deny all knowledge of the transaction.  These sorts of
investigations are moderately expensive individually to both the
card issuer and merchant, and extremely common collectively.  

BTW, excuse the stereotype in the example above - change sexes as 
appropriate for the situation.  :)

This is the reason Amex pulled out of servicing adult providers.
I do wonder if they will resume this service given the availability
of one-time card numbers.

                                                Ian.

>Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 11:41:54 -0400 (EDT)
>From: "P.J. Ponder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: American Express disposable card numbers
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>
>>From zdnet.com:
>http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2625758,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01
>
>Not much available on American Express's website, other than a signup form
>to give them your email address so they can send you info on when it is
>available.
>>
>>Security fix: Disposable credit cards? 
>>
>>American Express plans to offer disposable credit-card numbers for online
>>shopping amid continued consumer concerns over online security.
>>By Jathon Sapsford, WSJ Interactive Edition 
>>
>>September 8, 2000 5:45 AM PT <Picture>
>>
>>American Express Co., amid continued consumer concerns over online
>>security, is proposing an answer: disposable credit-card numbers.
>>
>>The New York travel and financial-services company announced a new
>>technology allowing registered holders of any American Express card the
>>ability to shop online with a random number, rather than their
>>credit-card number. 
>>
>>The card number would be good for one transaction only, and shoppers
>>would no longer have to give their credit-card number to merchants over
>>the Web. The service, to be called Private Payments, will be free for
>>cardholders and will cost nothing extra for merchants who accept American
>>Express. The service will be available to holders of any American Express
>>card within a month. 
>< /etc. >
>
>

--
Ian Farquhar
Senior Systems Engineer
Sun Microsystems Australia Pty Ltd
Level 5, 33 Berry St
North Sydney, NSW, 2060
Australia

Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: +61 2 9466 9465
Mobile: +61 409 601 028