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Japan facing credit card number shortage

mainichi.jp

271–280 of 360 posts

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#271
post #6

Assuming the last digit is a checksum and the first six are taken by the routing information, that leaves them 9 digits or a billion possible numbers per credit card issuer. Japan has a population of about 125 million. Are Japanese people cycling their numbers so frequently? Or are they big on ephemeral card numbers? Is it not possible for an issuer to get a second prefix if they run out of digits? I also wonder if c…

> that leaves them 9 digits or a billion possible numbers per credit card issuer.

Issuers won’t issue every number, because that would make it trivial to enumerate valid card numbers. I know that PANs are printed in plain view, but they’re considered sensitive.

> I also wonder if credit card numbers aren't living on borrowed time anyway. Instead of adding more digits it might make sense to remove the digits entirely and only allow token based transactions.

It’s already happening! The tokenisation tech that powers Apple/Google pay can now be used by merchants. Buts it’s currently got very low uptake.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#272
post #3
post #2

>the company decided to take makeshift measures such as reusing credit card numbers of discontinued cards after a certain period had passed since cardholders canceled their memberships. However, there are considerable risks of fraudulent usage What are the risks here, and why aren't they already present by someone generating credit card numbers with a RNG? AFAIK credit card transactions are authenticated by at least…

What if they switched CC numbers TO IPV6 addresses? Insane or genius?

If you want only identification, you can use a phone number, for some reason there's no problem with those.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#273
post #199

Something not clear from the article: The tech already supports longer numbers. Diners, Discover, UnionPay cards already allow up to 19 digits officially. The problem could be in the custom forms which think 4x4 is the right format, but the back-end should "just work" with them. What I really don't understand is why the article makes it seem like a national problem given the prefix is assigned to the companies, rathe…

But are all websites around the world ready to accept 19 digits?

They will in a heartbeat, assuming they want to sell anything at all to people who have the new 19-digit cards.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really sure what point you're trying to make, sorry?

Disposable CC numbers (one time use) is a waste of a very limited resource.

‘/s’ usually means sarcastic when you see it on this site, but you’ve used it in a comment where you meant what you said (you do think it’s good we’re not wasting IP addresses in the same way). That’s why it’s confusing.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#275
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty easy to make a secure payment method for one-off payments or fixed-price regular payments. A lot of the value of credit cards is that you can use them to pay for things that do usage-based billing, without having to do anything after the initial setup.

That's what direct debits (Avtalegiro in Norwegian) are for. Works fine here. I only use my credit cards for buying things in shops or one off things online. And my credit card gets paid by direct debit.

Indeed, and in the Netherlands there is something similar to Avtalegiro as well, since more than 20 years ago. And depending on your bank, they even make it easy to reverse a charge up to three months after it has been made if you don't agree with it.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#276
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called 3D Secure and requires a PIN to verify transaction(typically with SMS), or a security device provided by bank.

Except that 3D Secure is opt-in by the merchant. All you need to do is find a web store that is more than 2 years old and you can use stolen/skimmed cards all day long.

Nah, if the really card holder make a complaint to the card issuer, there will be a full charge-back by the card issuer plus a investigation fee and the store will have to cover the loss.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#277
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s very US centric. In every other place except America, credit card issuers mandate the use EMV’s and pin codes.

I think most us cards have chips, but no pins. It’s bizarre.

PIN is not going to help you as transactions made with PIN will be deemed made by you and you are most likely going to cover the loss if fraud did happen.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#278
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s very US centric. In every other place except America, credit card issuers mandate the use EMV’s and pin codes.

At least in the US, to be fair, they don't really take your money but rather the bank's money. Credit cards tend to be much more lenient and generous with fraud protection (among other benefits) in the US than in some other countries in which I've had cards.

They're lenient because they have to, and are paid to. Fraud is high and so are transaction fees.

And anecdotally, I cannot speak for the entire world, but European banks have no problem disputing fraudulent charges that happen overseas.

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#279
post #229

What's crazy is that we've had public key encryption for over 40 years, and we're still publishing magic numbers on little pieces of plastic that give whoever sees them the power to take all our money without our consent.

The prevalence of credit cards has baffled me for decades now. I admit I have one, but the only thing I need it for is to buy things from webshops that don't cater to the Dutch market. Every webshop that's vaguely aware of the Dutch market supports iDeal, which is specifically designed to handle internet payment and doesn't involve sharing any sensitive information with merchants or other unknown parties; my bank han…

Counter intuitive, IDEAL is not protecting you but the merchant: you still need something to convince your bank that you are the account holder, and those credentials for sure can be lost for some reason and then ...

Re: Japan facing credit card number shortage

#280
post #151

What's crazy is that we've had public key encryption for over 40 years, and we're still publishing magic numbers on little pieces of plastic that give whoever sees them the power to take all our money without our consent.

That’s very US centric. In every other place except America, credit card issuers mandate the use EMV’s and pin codes.

EMV is good, PIN is NOT
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