Transaction is refused because CVC2 code is missing, what can I do?

Transaction is refused because CVC2 code is missing

For card transactions such as e-commerce and MOTO, acquirers ought to send the CVC2 code in the authorization message that the issuer could use for card authentication; however, in reality, merchants will sometimes not prompt the user to enter the CVC2 code in the process for a quicker checkout experience. 

To cater for this scenario, we have built a specific Transaction Rule to allow card partners to manage eligible transactions without CVC2 themselves.

There are 3 situations with CVC2 in real-time processing:

1. CVC2 is shared and correct: Adyen will approve the transaction
2. CVC2 is shared and incorrect: Adyen will decline the transaction and you can find the CVC2 under Failed validation on the transfer attempt on the Customer Area
3. CVC2 is not shared: in this case, it will trigger an Adyen-owned Transaction Rule which adds 100 points to the transaction; without further action on your side, the transaction is declined as 100 points is our threshold. However, there are several actions you can take to manage which transactions without CVC2 they wish to approve.

Allow specific merchants for transactions without CVC2

You can configure a Transaction Rule such as the following to reduce the score by 20.

{
 "description": "Decrease risk score for Amazon transaction",
 "entityKey": {
   "entityType": "balancePlatform",
   "entityReference": "YourBalancePlatformName"
 },
 "interval": {
     "type": "perTransaction"
 },
 "ruleRestrictions": {
    "merchantNames": {
           "operation": "anyMatch",
           "value": [
               {
                   "operation": "contains",
                   "value": "ABCMerchant"
               },
               {
                   "operation": "contains",
                   "value": "ABC_Merchant"
               }
           ]
       }
 },
 "score": -20,
 "type": "blockList",
 "outcomeType": "scoreBased",
 "reference": "myRule12345"
}

Allow specific industries (MCCs) for transaction without CVC2

You can configure a Transaction Rule such as the following to reduce the score by 20.

{
 "description": "Decrease risk score for MCC 7011 - Lodging Hotels, Motels, and Resorts",
 "entityKey": {
   "entityType": "balancePlatform",
   "entityReference": "BP_NAME"
 },
 "interval": {
     "type": "perTransaction"
 },
 "ruleRestrictions": {
    "mccs": {
           "operation": "anyMatch",
           "value": [
               "7011"
           ]
       }
 },
 "score": -50,
 "type": "blockList",
 "outcomeType": "scoreBased",
 "reference": "myRule12345"
}