Ms. Lau was very eager to download her favourite applications from Apple's App Store as soon as she received her new iPad. But she hesitated when asked to input her credit card information. Her titanium card has credit limit of US$20,000, so she could potentially lose quite a sum if she had fallen victim to online credit card theft. Ms. Lau suddenly remembered reading about a new "Dynamic-Card-Number" feature that her card-issuing bank promoted recently. She decided to give it a try. Ms. Lau logged into her card-issuing bank's website to apply for a "Virtual-Card-Number" and set a temporary credit limit of a US$100 total, a US$5 per transaction limit and a two-month period of validity. This way, Ms. Lau no longer had to worry about her real credit card number being stolen, allowing her to enjoy a safe and carefree online shopping experience.

　　As financial payment products grow in diversity in recent years, the consuming public has become increasingly concerned about the security of payment processes. Studies have shown that up to 80% of cardholders have reservations about using credit cards for online payments. They are concerned that hackers or spyware will illegally intercept the number and expiry date of their credit card during the transaction process, leading to fraudulent transactions and personal financial losses. To address this issue, MasterCard recently introduced the inControl electronic payment platform, which offers cardholders a worry-free online payment solution by providing cardholders with a one-time use card number whenever they need to make an online payment. The one-time number would expire after the transaction, thus providing payment security.

　　During the online transaction process, the cardholder has control over the credit card transaction. Once the cardholder has selected the merchandize, confirmed the amount and proceeded to the payment stage, he or she can easily obtain from the card-issuer's website a credit card number, which has a specific validity period and a per transaction limit. We call this a "virtual-card-number" and the corresponding "credit card" is thus a virtual credit card. The cardholder only has to enter this new card number and the expiry date to the payment page to complete the transaction. The server processing the transaction for the online merchant can proceed as usual, without needing to ascertain whether it was a virtual credit card. After the transaction has been completed, even if the number had been stolen, it could not be used for any other transaction.

　　Dynamic-Card-Number is at the core of various card-not-present payment solutions offered by MasterCard's inControl platform. As a leader in innovative payment technology, MasterCard's inControl platform addresses different credit card transaction environments through a wide range of solutions by generating card numbers that can be used in various card-not-present transactions so that cardholders would not need to reveal their real card numbers. All this would not affect the card acceptance environment for merchants. Cardholders can also use "virtual-card-number" for all online and mail/telephone order (MOTO) transactions. After a transaction has been authorized and cleared in the usual manner, it will be recorded on the statement for the cardholder's actual credit card—just like a regular credit card has been used.

1．Strengthen precise control of each transaction

　　By specifying details about an impending transaction, cardholders enjoy an unprecedented level of control over their transactions. Cardholders are now able to set a variety of parameters, including the number of transactions, the amount, time, vendor type and geographical location. Different parameters can also be combined to support spending control across various card products (e.g., supplementary cards, travel cards, credit card for one-time online use).

2．Manage different payment tools through flexible rule settings (not limited to virtual cards)

　　MasterCard inControl allows issuers and cardholders the option of specifying personal rule settings to manage diverse payment tools (e.g., swipe cards, NFC cards, virtual cards) so as to ensure that transaction are routed to the appropriate sources (e.g., credit card, debit card, family card, corporate card, purchasing card).

3． Instant access to credit card services online upon application

　　When a customer applies for a credit card online, the card-issuing institution will process the application according to the usual procedure, complete credit review and set a credit limit. Before the cardholder receives the physical card, the issuing institution can issue a temporary card through MasterCard Worldwide's inControl platform. Transaction risks are minimized by precisely controlling various transaction parameters (the effective period of the temporary card number, credit limit, number of transaction for a single vendor, total number of transactions across different vendors, the amount of the first transaction, the time of the first transaction, etc). The cardholder can engage in online transactions as soon as he/she receives the temporary card number. While the temporary credit card number generated during this interim period will not be the eventual credit card number on the physical card, it is still recognized and is treated as an official credit card number legally. The temporary card number will expire as soon as the cardholder activates the physical card received. The issuing institution can send the temporary card number to the cardholder by computer or to his/her mobile phone. The temporary number will also be able to facilitate contactless transaction through RFID-equipped mobile phones. The use of temporary card number for online transaction is also available for supplementary cardholders.

　　"One-time-card-number"/"virtual card" mentioned above are not mere concepts on paper. Since MasterCard acquired Orbiscom, a growing number of card-issuing institutions have started using inControl to support a wide variety of convenient and secure online payment solutions. Citibank's Virtual Account Numbers, Bank of America's ShopSafe and DISCOVER's Secure OnlineAccount number, for instance, are all well received by consumers. Transactions amounting to the tens of millions (US dollar) have been securely completed through the platform to-date.

Example 1: The credit card number is suitable for single transactions without credit limits.
Example 2: The credit card number is valid for 2 months; the credit limit is US$125 for a single transaction
Example 3: The credit card number is valid for 6 months. Its total credit limit is US$75, available for multiple transactions.