Virtual Credit Card Numbers

Almost all of us are diligent in protecting our computer from online hazards. The isn’t much you can do about a bigger threat to your data and finances. Thieves can tap into millions of financial records belonging to companies that charge or process credit cards.

There is a way to make your credit card number worthless to thieves. Virtual credit card numbers- which you can get from some banks, Paypal and others allow for additional fraud protections. Merchants process virtual card numbers just as they would a standard card number, and you can use a virtual number for online or phone purchases that don’t require showing your card.

A crook who steals a virtual card number gets only a meaningless string. If you have a credit card (not a debit card) with some banks and Paypal, you already have access to this feature. A new online service called Shopshield also provides various levels of protection All of those offerings add an extra step to any purchase, since you first have to create a number through a banking site, desktop application or a browser plug-in. Every virtual number is tied to the first merchant that uses it, so any subsequent charges to the same virtual number are denied.

Bank of America card holders can make a virtual number by logging in to online banking, clicking View Options to the right of the account, and choosing Create a Shopsafe account number. You can set a spending limit and an expiration date.

For Citibank , log in to online banking and click on Virtual Account Numbers in the upper right. You can also download software by logging in to citicards.com or universalcard.com, selecting Get a Virtual Account Number from ‘Tools and Services’, and then clicking download now.

Paypal users can grab a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer or Firefox by logging in, choosing Products and Services, and the clicking Paypal Plug-in under ‘More Products and Services’. The plug-in adds an icon to the upper right corner of the browser with drop-down menu options to create a Secure Card virtual number and perform other Paypal tasks.

You can tie shopshield (http://www.shopshield.net) to any credit card or checking account. It creates not only a virtual credit card number but also a faux email address, name and other contact info for use with the number. You can create such profiles either at the company site or through a Firefox add-on. The add-on recognizes shopping sites and autofill forms. Shopshield offers a free service for checking accounts; a pay-as-you-go service for debit and credit cards.