Virtual Credit Card (VCC)

Register nº 4556 L. B18   27/August/1998

SUMMARY

This document has as objective to describe the making and the use of the Virtual Credit Card (VCC) in the Electronic Commerce, which guarantees total safety in the Commercial Transactions, for the three involved entities: The Consumer, the Trade and the Financial. Using VCC the Consumer doesn't need to reveal to the Trade the true number of its Credit Card supplied by the Financial. VCC is given by the Financial to the Consumer, whenever requested, for all transaction to be made.

1. INTRODUCTION

The use of the Internet as middle of sales comes growing in a geometric way, should reach 134 billion dollars in the year 2000 (according to Yankee Group) and will be involved in this Electronic Commerce about 435 thousand companies (according to Volpe, Welty&Co).
For more attractiveness than it is to make a purchase through Internet or the Communication Lines, many Consumers still feel insecure in the accomplishment of this transaction type, because in the current processes existent in the market, the Consumer informs to the Commerce the true number of its Credit Card.
It exists, now, in the Electronic Commerce the SET Protocol, developed by a consortium led by the cards Visa and MasterCard, as a way of solving safety's problem and privacy in the transactions with the Credit Card through Internet.
In spite of all the approaches of safety of the SET Protocol, nevertheless, the Trade will receive from the Consumer the true number of the Credit Card, what doesn't give to this an integral safety, because the number of the Card is revealed several times in the net, for different Salespersons, in all the transactions made.

2. MAKING OF VCC AND ITS USE

Steps to make and to execute a transaction with VCC:

Considering: T - Trade, C - Consumer and F - Financial

1) C wants to make a purchase in T.
2) C interacts with F to obtain a VCC with the Virtual No. X, for that transaction.
3) C uses VCC with the Virtual No. X, supplied by F, to make the purchase in T.
4) T invoices F using the Virtual No. X informed by C.
5) F checks the Virtual No. X and it makes the payment.
6) F sends the invoice to C in the date of the expiration.

VCC, with the Virtual No. X, will have one period of validity for its use, it can be coded using the date, hour, data of the own Card, data of the trade etc. The making of VCC (with the Virtual No. X), it is a responsability of F.
The transactions between C and F will always use cryptography, according to the approaches defined by F.

3. ADVANTAGES IN THE USE:

1) The true number of the Consumer's Credit Card, for a certain transaction, will only be informed once, and always for the Financial responsible for the emission of the Card. This operation will give larger safety to the possessor of the Credit Card.
2) The Financial will know details of a transaction that it will be made by that Credit Card in advance, it could verify the value it's limits and validity of the card, and it will emit a VCC that contains the Virtual No. X specific for that transaction.
3) The Trade will receive, from the Consumer, a VCC with the Virtual No. X that was emitted by the Financial for that transaction.
4) The use of VCC doesn't block the use of the current processes, i.e., the introduction and use of VCC can be gradual until becoming a well-known process and used by everybody in the net.
5) The Virtual No. X correspondent for the Financial can be in two formats:
5.1 - Readable format for the Consumer, this way he will be transferred to the Trade also in a readable way, for fingering or copy.
5.2 - Illegible format (cryptography), this way it will be received by the Consumer as a file, that will be transferred to the Trade in the same format. This format will be identified and only recognized by the Financial, that coded the Virtual No. X.

4. CONCLUSION

The purchases using the Credit Card can be classified in two ways:
1) With the possessor's of the Card physical presence, allowing the Trade the conference of authenticity of the Card for signature, and still the verification of Credit limit close to the Financial.
2) Through the Communication Means (such as: Telephone, Fax, Internet, Mail (using a specific form)), which doesn't allow the Trade to check, the authenticity by means of signature. This way the Consumer, that discloses the number of its Card, as well as the Trade are with certain insecurity margin, because of the possibility of fraudulent use of that Credit Card Number.

VCC will only be used in the form 2 (through the communication means), reducing the improper use of the true number of the credit card, that will only be used in the form 1 (the possessor's of the Card physical presence), protecting this way, the Consumer, owner of the Card, and the Trade for the largest safety in the transaction involving the Credit Card.
For implantation of VCC it will be necessary to alter the Systems of the Financial for them to operate with the Virtual No. X, and to instruct the Consumer and the Trade about the procedures of use of VCC.

Author: joseau@superig.com.br
Working in Computer science since 1971, formed in Electronic Engineering/UFRJ -1972, with Masters degree in Systems Engineering/COPPE/UFRJ -1974, obtaining in 1984 Master's degree in Engineering of Systems for the Military Institute of Engineering, RJ.
São Lourenço/MG - Brazil, August 9, 1998

Register nº 4556 L. B18    27/August/1998

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