Single-use credit-card numbers help fight identity theft

NEW YORK - Cyberspace shopper Roger So relies on a 16-digit tool to prevent his personal information from being stolen: a single-use credit-card number.

When shopping online, the 52-year-old information-technology consultant periodically uses this randomly generated number - provided by his credit-card issuer, Citigroup Inc. - in place of his actual account information because, he said, it "gives me one more line of security."

"I use it primarily with merchants that I'm dealing with for the first time," said So, a resident of Morristown, N.J.

from Tucson Citizen