Verified by Visa Validation Process

Verified by Visa (VbV) is a service that enables card issuers to validate the identity of their cardholders during the course of an online transaction. The validation process goes through the following stages:

1. During an online transaction at a participating eCommerce merchant, the Visa cardholder clicks "Complete Order" or an equivalent option at the checkout. Software previously installed on the merchant's server recognizes eligible Visa card accounts and initiates the next steps of the process.
   
2. At this time a Verified by Visa page appears in a new browser showing the merchant website's URL. If the cardholder has previously activated the card, he or she will be prompted to enter the password that they created during the activation process. There is an option for retrieving forgotten passwords as well. If the cardholder has not previously activated the card, he or she may be prompted to do so by the card issuer. If the card issuer does not participate in Verified by Visa, no cardholder interaction takes place. However, the merchant still qualifies for certain fraud liability protection. The merchant receives an "Attempted Authentication" response with authentication data to be submitted in the authorization as proof of qualification for chargeback protection for the transaction.
   
3. The card issuer verifies its cardholder's identity for cards that have been activated and sends a response to the merchant with the authentication result. If the authentication fails, the merchant should request an alternative payment method.
   
4. Once the Verified by Visa verification process is complete, the merchant includes the authentication data received from the card issuer in the transaction authorization request.