If a credit card gets stolen they have access to the CVV number as easily as the 16 digits
In: Economics
On your physical card, the data on the magnetic strip is just the card number and the expiration date. The beginning of the card number is a reference code to the card management company (Visa, Master, Amex, Discover, etc.) and the issuing bank, and the rest is your identifier.
When skimmers started being a thing, picking up and storing the magnetic swipe, card companies introduced PINs. Well, then skimmers were built that had button overlays that could steal the PIN.
So they added more security. A CVV that was used essentially only for online purchases so that someone who skimmed the card info couldn’t make online purchases with skimmed swipe data. Even still, cameras got small enough and good enough to be able to read the CVV in a skim attack.
So the current state of things is this:
Your swipe is rarely used, preventing skimming; chip or tap is common at most retailers, which can be read by a skimmer but as it’s encrypted and doesn’t code to the card number, it’s much less useful. Either way, you also use your PIN or ZIP code as a second factor of authentication to ensure it’s actually the cardholder using the card in person. (Some cards may allow PIN-less and ZIP-less purchases, but they’re rare and typically only on low-dollar purchases.)
If the card stripe is skimmed, the thief cannot just make a physical copy because of the vast majority of retailers who have transitioned to chip-insertion readers where the card issuer forces a chip read at point of sale. They can’t really use the card online, even if they have the PIN, because they need the CVV. If they do get the CVV, they also need the ZIP code.
And at that point, the thief has your whole wallet and you have larger problems at hand.
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