Single-Use Credit Card Numbers
Single-use, or one-time,
credit card numbers are offered by some banks, and are generated by the
consumer at the time a credit card number is required for making an
online purchase. The idea is that each such number can only be
used once, after which it becomes invalid for making additional charges
to the actual credit card account with which it is associated.
Authentication to the issuing bank, either directly on the
bank's
website, or indirectly via a downloadable application on the consumer's
computer, is required to obtain a single-use credit card number.
Although the current implementation of single-use credit card numbers does require a bit more effort on the part of the consumer, the benefit to consumers is protection against fraudulent credit card charges by a thief who obtains these numbers by any of several means, including data breaches of the merchant's website. From the merchant's viewpoint, single-use numbers (if they were widely used) would lessen the amount of credit card fraud which they may ultimately have to pay for, since authentication of the credit card user is required prior to issuance of the numbers.
More information on single use credit card numbers can be found here and here.
Although the current implementation of single-use credit card numbers does require a bit more effort on the part of the consumer, the benefit to consumers is protection against fraudulent credit card charges by a thief who obtains these numbers by any of several means, including data breaches of the merchant's website. From the merchant's viewpoint, single-use numbers (if they were widely used) would lessen the amount of credit card fraud which they may ultimately have to pay for, since authentication of the credit card user is required prior to issuance of the numbers.
More information on single use credit card numbers can be found here and here.