Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Verified by Visa sucks

Last night I learned about another shortcoming of the Verified by Visa program. A single authentication allows the merchant to complete multiple transactions, including past transactions which were stopped by Verified by Visa.

I had forgotten one aspect of my Verified by Visa password, and so I was unable to complete a Newegg.ca order. I didn't get any confirmation and the order wasn't listed under the list of orders, and so I assumed the order was aborted. Then I reset my password and repeated the order. After I completed the Verified by Visa authentication, the old order appeared in the list of orders and proceeded as if I had authorized it. In fact, the single Verified by Visa authentication allowed four orders to proceed; each order had been split into two parts by Newegg.

This is not security. A Verified by Visa authentication does not prove consent for anything.

(Yeah, I was able to quickly contact a Newegg customer service representative and void the order. So, everything is ok. The only consequence is decreased confidence in Newegg's website and Verified by Visa.)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That really sucks..
Though i enter my details correctly, it fails on dell.cpm

Anonymous said...

fails for me indefinitely, unless I globally allow javascript....which I really don't want to do. more passwords =/= hightened security.

Anonymous said...

Verified by Visa keeps failing and failing worldwide. I wonder how much money do merchants and bank lost because of failed VbV transactions.

Anonymous said...

I truly HATE Verified By Visa with a passion!!! I'm not a very negative person either. I'm pretty easy going in fact. I wish merchants would wake up and realize what a bummer Verified By Visa is and stop using it. I will choose merchants who don't use Verified By Visa or the ones that do. As more and more people do that, maybe we can get rid of this evil leach.

Anonymous said...

Well, I don't mind using it when it works. But as I have been on the phone for over an hour with visa and no one there can figure out what is wrong, it does not inspire a great deal of confidence

Anonymous said...

it fails and fails and fails and i cannot order what i want - merchant loses my money as i had to go to another sight that does not use this piece of garbage...

Anonymous said...

verified by visa sucks bad! I'm trying to buy plane tickets through philippine airlines online and verified by visa wont let the transaction go through. Man I hate it! I wish It would go away for good. I bet alot of companies are losing alot of money because of it.

Anonymous said...

What is wrong with these companies, cant they see vbv is the biggest pile of crap? I cant upload money to moneybookers because "card Authentication has not been successfully completed at the 'Verified by Visa' website". I changed the password and tried again, vbv says i managed to do the transaction but moneybookers says "card Auth...." again.

Anonymous said...

Same here. I spent two hours trying to buy tickets from Philippines Air and VbV also blocks it, declines it, whatever. I just email them that the VbV sucks and am going to Cebu pacific instead.

Rausec said...

I am a student and tried to sign up for a praxis test at ETS, which I have done effortlessly before VBV, come to find out it does not support firefox 4. very angy on Guam