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At best, the issue I can see here is that Square would make it easy to very quickly and casually skim a card without having to look at it, or be seen writing do
by jschuur 16y ago
At best, the issue I can see here is that Square would make it easy to very quickly and casually skim a card without having to look at it, or be seen writing down the info from it. A marginal advantage if you already have access to the card, but conceivably, a fast fingered waiter could pull this off in public view, and the Square app is perhaps a little easier to conceal than other card readers.
What about the value of also capturing the CVV1 code, which, as I understand it, is the only piece of info not already printed on the card?
- brown9-2 16y agoCVV is printed on the back of the card. Thus the point remains, once I hand over my card to someone, all of the information they need to use my card is printed right on the card.
- jschuur 16y agoMy understanding is that the CVV2 is printed on the back of the card for phone and online orders and the CVV1 encoded on the strip for in person orders when the card is swiped. I'm not sure what the security rationale is for 2 distinct codes. Maybe the CVV1 value is designed to prevent thieves from making swipable cards when they only have the credit card number and didn't clone a card (e.g. they obtained the card number from a rogue or compromised online store).
- metageek 16y agoThe two codes are probably because the banks distinguish between merchants that take cards online and those that only accept physical cards; the latter get charged less, because they're a lower risk. (At least, that used to be the case.) With two codes, the banks can require physical-only merchants to include the CVV2.