CVV is a new authentication scheme established by credit card companies to further efforts towards reducing fraud for internet transactions. It consists of requiring a card holder to enter the CVV number in at transaction time to verify that the card is on hand.
Visa & MasterCard This number is printed on your MasterCard & Visa cards in the signature area of the back of the card. (It is the last 3 digits AFTER the credit card number in the signature area of the card).

The CVV code is a security feature for "card not present" transactions (e.g., Internet transactions), and now appears on most (but not all) major credit and debit cards. This new feature is a three- or four-digit code which provides a cryptographic check of the information embossed on the card. Therefore, the CVV code is not part of the card number itself.

The CVV code helps ascertain that the customer placing the order actually possesses the credit/debit card and that the card account is legitimate. Each credit card company has its own name for the CVV code, but it functions the same for all major card types. (VISA refers to the code as CVV2, MasterCard calls it CVC2, and American Express calls it CID.)

VISA/MASTERCARD
The three-digit CVV code is printed on the signature panel on the back of the card immediately after the card's account number, as show in this example:

Note that the CVV code is printed only on the back of Visa and Master cards and it is not contained in the magnetic stripe information nor does it appear on sales receipts or in confirmation emails.

As with AVS, you must select one CVV setting for your account for all transactions. You may update this setting at any time by contacting us.