How do websites know when you input a fake credit card number?
In: Technology
Besides actually checking the vendor (there’re like 4 vendors for all cards. Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover. Everyone else uses one of those, usually Visa or Mastercard) which would verify if the card is valid, most cards follow a certain numbering convention. You can read up more on it here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_card_number#:~:text=Payment%20card%20numbers%20are%20composed,the%20individual%20account%20identification%20number.
And when you add a card to a website (like amazon or even an online game for microtransactions) they actually send a small test charge (usually one cent) which they will refund. All it’s doing is testing the route to make sure that it’s valid and there is money in the account. That said, sometimes banks twig out about it if it isn’t your usual thing and lock down your card until you confirm that it’s not someone stealing your card.
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