Embossing

Related terms

BIN / IIN

Bank Identification Number, formally the Issuer Identification Number under ISO/IEC 7812. The first six digits of the PAN identify the issuing institution...

CVV / CVC

Card Verification Value (Visa) or Card Verification Code (Mastercard). CVV1 is encoded on the magnetic stripe, CVV2/CVC2 is the 3-digit printed code...

EMV Chip

Integrated-circuit chip following the EMV (Europay-Mastercard-Visa) specification. Contact interface per ISO/IEC 7816, contactless per ISO/IEC 14443. Generates dynamic cryptograms that defeat static-data...

Hologram

Diffractive optical security feature: Visa dove, Mastercard interlocking globes, RuPay tricolour. Hard to reproduce without specialised embossing equipment.

Magnetic Stripe

Ferromagnetic strip on the card reverse encoding account data on three tracks per ISO/IEC 7811. Track 1 alphanumeric (79 chars), Track 2...

NFC

Near Field Communication, the 13.56 MHz contactless radio interface used for tap-to-pay. Built on ISO/IEC 14443 and underlies UPI Lite and RuPay...

PVC Card Body

Standard payment card construction: polyvinyl chloride core sandwiched between two transparent laminated overlays. Card dimensions 85.60 by 53.98 mm per ISO/IEC 7810...

Shimmer

Thin sliver-shaped device inserted inside the chip reader of an ATM or POS to intercept data exchanged with the EMV chip.

Signature Panel

White panel on the card reverse printed with a tamper-evident background (often the issuer name repeated or the word VOID appearing if...

Skimmer

Overlay device fitted on an ATM card slot or POS terminal that reads and stores the magnetic stripe data of cards swiped...

Tokenisation

RBI-mandated mechanism that replaces the PAN stored at merchants with a token usable only by that merchant, reducing the value of stolen...

Explained in

• Forensic Examination of Credit Cards and Similar MaterialsRaised characters on older card fronts produced by an embosser; modern cards are increasingly flat-printed because POS imprinters are obsolete.