Credit cards are often used by us to make online payment where the transaction is complete once the 3 digit Card Verification Value (CVV) number is entered.

It a number which is printed at the reverse of the card and if in case it falls into wrong hands then it can be easily misused.

Recently the Bangalore police have come across a credit card racket where CVV number has been misused and used to make online transactions. It was found out that a credit card with credit and cash limits of Rs 28,000 and Rs 7,000 respectively was used by to make online purchases of more than Rs 2.8 lakh.

On investigating on the complaint logged the cardholder, the police found that all the transactions were made from Japan.

The investigating officer connected with the matter said, "We wrote a letter to the vendor in Japan, seeking details of the person who made the purchase. We also gave the IP address of the person who made the transaction. The bank, which had issued the card, gave a new card and waived the entire transaction. The complainant has stopped responding to our calls."

The police further said that there is an organized racket tracking CVV numbers. CVV number of a card can be easily obtained when a credit card is swiped for making transactions. It is just a 3 digit number that can be remembered by any person swiping the card and the other details such as the card number come in the receipt, which would enable one to misuse the card.

"However, none of these cards are used in Bangalore. They're used either in Mumbai or sometimes abroad which means, these details are being sold to some other people running this racket. CVV numbers of cards from other places like Mumbai and Delhi may be used here," indicated the officer.

The officer further pointed that, "Most transactions are purchase of air tickets. Some will be online product procuring. Once banks agree to waive the transaction money on the statement, customers stop coming to police stations. Besides, we are not getting any cooperation from the airlines or travel agencies."

Meanwhile Charu Deshpande of ICICI Bank said, "We have two or three layers of protection, including asking for random numbers of the card and password. Most often, customers make simple mistakes. For online transactions, they can have a card, which has lesser credit limit and avail SMS facility for every transaction made on the card. CVV numbers can be concealed, so that others cannot read it. Some simple precautions need to be taken."