The technology was introduced primarily as an anti-fraud measure, so that a virtual unique credit card number may be generated to settle a specific transaction, on an exact date by an authorized individual.
The possibility of a fraud occurring is significantly less than a traditional physical card, which can be lost, stolen or indeed cloned.
[2] In the United States, the system is used by the following credit card issuers: Bank of America "ShopSafe" (inherited when it acquired MBNA) (and now discontinued-see below)[3] and Citibank "Virtual Account Numbers".
[4] Examples from other countries are MBnet, which can create a payment number linked to virtually any credit or debit card emitted in Portugal.
[7] In the UK, Ivobank offered a similar "virtual card" until it went bankrupt in 2009, and Cahoot withdrew their Webcard in October 2009.
As security is a primary reason for VCC usage, rapid turnover of VCNs prevents funds from being compromised for long periods of time.