Credit Card Bin Checks - Fraud Library

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The credit card number can tell you several very interesting things. By using the first 6 digits you can determine the card type, Visa,MasterCard, American Express and you can determine the bank where the card was issued. The first 6 digits of the credit card number are known as the Bank Identification Number (BIN). The BIN identifies the consumers issuing bank.

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Identity in numbers...

The credit card number can tell you several very interesting things. By using the first 6 digits you can determine the card type, Visa,MasterCard, American Express and you can determine the bank where the card was issued. The first 6 digits of the credit card number are known as the Bank Identification Number (BIN). The BIN identifies the consumers issuing bank.

How Good Is It? 

The Bank Identification Number (BIN) provides a way to check if the issuing bank is in the same country as the geolocation, and address information provided by the consumer. While this alone is not enough to indicate fraud, it provides an additional signal as to the identity of the individual.

Considerations When Implementing or Buying This Functionality   

• It is not easy to get a bin list.
• There are two types of bin lists - there are bin lists for bin to country, and bin lists for bank to bin.

Estimated Costs –Can be found as a per transaction hosted solution, or you can potentially get it from your acquirer.

Want your own bin list? Call us today 1-888-227-0402

Alternative Solutions –Credit Card Verification .

Vendors – MaxMind, Service Objects Inc.

How Does it Work? 

Credit card numbers are ISO 7812 numbers. As an ISO 7812 number it contains:

• a single-digit major industry identifier (MII), (the MII is considered to be part of the issuer identifier number.)
• a six-digit issuer identifier number (IIN),
• an account number,
• and a single digit checksum using the Luhn algorithm.

Cards participating in the BIN system include:

• credit cards
• debit cards
• charge cards
• stored-value cards
• Electronic Benefit Transfer cards

The term "Issuer Identification Number" (IIN) is replacing "Bank Identification Number". See ISO 7812 for more information.

The prefixes and lengths for the most common card types are:

Refernces

1. Card Security Features.
2. American Express Fraud Prevention Handbook - Pg 13.
3. Bankcard Association of Australia.
4. MasterCard Diner's Club Alliance.
5. Diner's Club - Fraud Management.
6. Merchant Resources - Fraud Prevention - Card Present Transactions.
7. Cardholder Identification and Authentication.

How Do I Use the Results? 

Online merchants may use BIN lookups to help validate transactions. For example, if the credit card's BIN indicates a bank in one country, while the customer's billing address is in another, the transaction may require additional review.

Building This In-House 

This technique can easily be done in-house, provided you have access to a bin list.

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