I was trying to purchase a gift card from giftcards.com
When I went to check out it requires me not only to give my debit card, but the address associated with the card and the 3 digit number on back. OK that’s normal.
Then it wants to know the name of the bank that issued the debit card and the phone number I gave the bank. The site claims it uses this phone number to verify the card.
I’ve had it happen once or twice in the past. Not too often, but it’s not unheard of. It’s just one more layer of security to make sure that you’re holding the card in your hand. Now that card thieves know they have to get the security code, merchants need something else to protect themselves, so that’s probably going to be it for a little while. Of course, as a merchant, with the CC number I have a web portal I can use to get that bank contact info. Maybe they want to be able to verify it against that if they’re worried about the purchase. (I was starting to say that if I chose to steal your CC info, I could use that portal to get the banks phone number and address, but then I realized that I could use that info to check it against what you told me too)
As long as you’re working with a cite you trust, I wouldn’t worry about it.
I’m pretty sure that name, address, birth date, and phone number are all checked against the online use of credit cards to check the validity of the identity of the user. There’s no reason they can’t also do that in person. It’s more secure then the signature which is almost never checked anymore… even if the card holder has remembered to actually sign the back of their card.
I’ve never run in to a phone number check (or birthday). It’s not part of the Address Verification System check. So I don’t know how it could be used to automatically verify anything prior to charging the card.
I have seen Newegg.com ask for the issuer’s toll-free number on the back of the card. But they’re not verifying it, they’re just requiring you to fill something in.
I have run in to banks’ phone systems requiring me to either be calling from the phone number associated with my account or supply a PIN or supply my SSN.
The retailer in question is probably not verifying the number on the spot and will let a charge go through if it’s incorrect. However if there are problems it gives them extra info to use when they call the bank to straighten out said problems. The bank might require it.
It could be legitimate. I don’t recall if we could include phone number in the authorization request (on reading ZipperJJ’s post, maybe not but I don’t know if AVS is the whole story, and that is for credit cards, not debit cards used with a PIN). But there are also third-party fraud detection services that will use information that is not required for the authorization.
By the way, is this a debit card transaction with PIN, or are you using a branded debit card as though it were a credit card?
That’s becoming fairly common. As Joey P, said, it’s supposedly a check to see that you are holding the actual card, not just a credit slip copy pulled from a stores trash.