Fake credit cards: learn the ways they can be used.

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Nowadays you need to always have your credit card at hand to perform all kinds of online operations. Performing operations across different platforms is a normalized gesture in our routines. Even so, we should never neglect the security of our personal and financial information and give it anywhere. Remember, it should be provided only to trusted sites and when necessary. If you are not interested in providing your actual card number, one option is to generate a fake credit card. How can you do it and in what cases? Let's try to clear up doubts. 

What is a fake credit card?

To start, we will tell you what it is not. 

It is not a physical card, that is, a slice of plastic to carry around in the wallet with its chip and its magnetic stripe. 

It is not a card that serves you to perform financial operations, therefore you cannot recharge it with funds or have the possibility to withdraw money. Much less can give you access to financing for your purchases, simply because it is not a real credit card. Let's say it is a "ghost" card, an empty number that is not linked to any authentic bank account and replaces a virtual card.

Fake credit card is an artificially generated number with the algorithm that is used for real card numbers (Luhn's algorithm). Therefore, the number can be accepted normally when you enter it in a payment form. You can also assign more data to make it more credible, such as a name, expiration date and CVV or CVC. We insist: it is only a randomly generated number that will be detected as valid when you enter it in a form. However, it doesn't allow you to perform a successful payment transaction. Randomly generated numbers don't work for that. Any financial institution will reject it and you should never try to use it to make purchases. That said, it is logical then that you are asking yourself the next question. 

What do I need a fake credit card for? 

The truth is that having some artificially generated credit card numbers can be very useful for some things. 

For testing when developing e-Commerce platforms 

Fake credit card for testing e-commerce platforms and software is a widespread practice among professionals. Anyone who is working on the development of a payment platform knows that it is essential to check its operation. You need to verify that all the steps that form part of a checkout process respond correctly to the programming, but it is difficult to have real credit card numbers with which to do tests because nobody is going to want to transfer their data to do technical experiments with it. So what is a solution? That's where fake credit cards can be of great help. You can generate as many fake numbers as you need, from different brands (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, etc.), and make sure that the platform works optimally with each one of them.

Fake credit card website

To complete registrations in sites that you don't trust 

Have you ever entered a website to take a look and were asked for your card details in order to register and continue? Theoretically, you will not be charged until you make a purchase, but it is understandable that no one likes to provide his credit card number in places where he just wants to look around or take a test online, without getting the feeling of commitment or be forced to give committed information.

If, in addition, the site does not seem reliable, you should never provide your real credit card number. Protecting your data is your responsibility. So in such a case it may be very useful for you to generate a fake credit card number that will allow you to continue the process. Then, if you are interested in what the website is offering, you can provide your real credit card number or see which payment system convinces you the most. 

To try a free service 

Many websites that sell services offer the possibility of testing for a limited time. It is a very effective marketing tool: offer a free trial so you can try the product. If it convinces you, there are more chances that you want to buy it later. But if it a free trial, why would you want to provide a fake credit card? The point is that to access promotions of this type in many cases you are asked to provide your credit card number in advance. After free trial period is over, when notified or sometimes even without notification, the service provider will start charging you from the card you provided. That is, they do not need to use your credit card until the end of the trial period. Therefore, some users feel more comfortable if they do not provide it until they really want to access the payment service. Therefore, they enter the number of a fake credit card and there is no bank account associated to it to charge. 

To protect your privacy with a fake credit card 

Users of online services are increasingly aware of the importance of protecting sensitive information and providing it only when necessary and in trusted environments. Therefore, that a website asks for more data than necessary is perceived by many as an interference in privacy. For those situations, resorting to a fake credit card may be an option. In any case we recommend that you inform yourself properly and that you be cautious in all the operations that you carry out on the internet. 

If you need more information you can consult our Virtual POS services: we are specialists in payment systems.