Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce plans to offer one-time-use credit card account numbers for Internet purchases by its Canadian customers beginning early next year, the bank said Wednesday.
American Express Co. and MBNA Corp. have begun offering similar programs, which let people use a unique credit card account number for each Internet purchase instead of putting their real account numbers online. The disposable numbers, products of algorithm computations, are given to people after they commit themselves to a transaction, then are routed to the card issuer, which authenticates the consumer.
The merchants have to do nothing different from what they do today, said Brenda Clark, vice president for Internet channel management at CIBC card products. They may in fact not be aware the customer is using a one-time disposable number.
CIBC, a Visa issuer, plans to use technology from Aplettix Inc., a New York company that develops secure e-commerce software. Guy Netef, vice president for marketing and business development at Aplettix, said the consumer is authenticated based on an identification number and the PC registered with CIBC. Once a transaction is completed, the number is retired, though it could be used again, but from a different PC, with a different ID number, and on a different day, Mr. Netef said.
Aplettix and CIBC Visa will do a pilot test in early 2001 and will offer the service to all of CIBCs Canadian customers later in the year. Mr. Netef said Aplettix is developing software that will let disposable numbers be used on wireless devices but that this will not be available right away.
