Verified by Visa?

Question

Was it just me who's had problems getting this to allow me to sign up? After two wasted shopping attempts, on my second phone call I was finally told my card had been locked ... we couldn't work out why until at some point down the line she said something about opening a new window in internet explorer. I'd been using firefox. Apparently verified by visa doesn't work with firefox. Everything else, just not firefox. Anyway after much time and effort she assisted my registration so that visa could verify my online shopping by requesting a password and using my passphrase to reassure me I was on a secure site. Hurray! (Obviously for physical sales there's the security of online allowing deliveries to the cardholders address, but I spose for service and digital services some sort of extra security might possibly be a good thing...)

Anyway about 2 mins after finally ordering what I wanted - during which process I did not get asked for my VBV password or get any security reassuring message) my mobile went. Didn't answer it in time. So home phone goes. No one there. Then it rings again. Ahhh it's a nice call centre lady from the other side of the planet. Can I tell her my DOB as she's from my bank. Yeah right. I refused. Instead I asked her to confirm to me digits from my DOB. After much grumbling she did it. So anyway by now she wants to confirm I've just used my visa card online to buy something as they were watching incase of fraud online. So I told her ALL about my nightmarish two days attempting to get some shopping online. She finally got to ask me if I'd just shopped online and I again pointed out that I'd just spent two days trying to get verified by visa so that this sort of online shopping situation could be eliminated. So then she wants me to confirm the other recent purchases. Gosh. I'd made those in person using my top secret pin number which is supposed to be really really secure so that only someone with my pin can use my card. She wasn't very interested in me not getting asked for the VBV password as it's not what she does.

Amazing what ideas they come up with to drive us mad.

Have you verified your visa?

Colin Wilson · Accepted Answer

If it's any consolation, I find it a worryingly bad idea and pain in the ass too.

The popup window has no host name displayed, so you can't verify that the popup actually IS from a legit company - and per a recent verified* scam on ebay, scammers have been able to set up a webserver (IIRC) on the target dummys' machine to display false details despite visiting a legit website to check on the status of the goods (effectively it subverted the results given by the legit site and added incorrect data to make it look even better)

*it was mentioned in the last 2-3 weeks over at theregister.co.uk

Tim Woodall · Answer

If you turn off javascript (or use a browser that doesn't support javascript at all -  is much much easier to use with javascript turned off) you do get the address in the url. But eventually (because I have absolutely no idea what my code is) I get a screen where I have to enter my card number but within a couple of seconds it redirects to:  You cannot access this page.   This may be due to one of two reasons:  1. The FI you are trying to access is deactivated  2. The access to the FI is restricted for specific IP addresses, and your address is not one of them. So I had to give up with the mastercard and use my natwest one card instead which redirects me to "" (_obviously_ this looks exactly like a fraud but a google on cyota shows that it was acquired by RSA security in 2005/06 so presumably it is legit) tim@feynman:~$ whois      Domain name:              Registrant:         cyota     Registrant type:         Unknown     Registrant's address:         8 west 38th street         new...

Rosie Dandew · Answer

Mogga said.....

Yes. Then a few weeks ago I used a site that says its transactions are VbV but I wasn't asked for any of the VbV security details or passed through to a VbVs pop-up screen. So I queried it by email with world pay and got this slightly astonishing reply from their Technical Support mob in India: "Thank you for your email. I'm afraid I'm unable to verify why you were not presented with the VbV screen to authenticate the transaction on this occasion. However, I can confirm that this merchant is enrolled for VbV. This should not be a concern to yourself as a shopper as this scheme is more designed to protect merchants from fraud - shifting the liability to yourself - by verifying that you are the genuine cardholder. Your card details are processed securely by our system regardless of whether the transaction is authenticated or not."

Chris Blunt · Answer

The Personal Assurance Message that you agreed with your credit card company when you first registered should be displayed in that popup. I thought the whole point of that was to reassure you that the window does actually originate from them.

Chris

Greg Rozelle · Answer

Maybe it is different in the states. When the popup, come up. It suppose to show your special phrase and your banks website. Greg Rozelle

Graham Murray · Answer

Verified by Visa works fine for me using Firefox

Mogga · Answer

The registration process?

Graham Murray · Answer

Yes, I did that using firefox as well. I can't remember but I think I may have had to enable popups on the site which prompted me to register.

Mark Goodge · Answer

At least they're honest. Mark

Tim Woodall · Answer

I've never agreed a message and I don't see anything that looks even vaguely like something I might have agreed. I think it does say something like MRWOODALL617 or something similar somewhere on the popup but whatever the digits are they mean nothing to me and MRWOODALL seems a bit too obvious to be some sort of security phrase.

Tim.

Tim Woodall · Answer

No, I was wrong, that's my "Login" whatever that is (The numbers are different). My personal greeting is "Welcome to SecureCode". Is that meant to be something I've agreed with someone somewhere? I'd never really noticed it before.

Tim.

Verified by Visa?

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