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Ecommerce security terms reference
Definitions of ecommerce security and payment terms — including 3-D Secure, AVS, and payment gateway terminology — used throughout Foxy's documentation.
This reference defines common e-commerce security and payment terms used throughout Foxy’s documentation.
Term | Also known as | Definition |
|---|---|---|
3-D Secure | Verified by Visa (VbV), Mastercard SecureCode (MCSC) | A protocol that adds a layer of security to online credit and debit card transactions. The customer is redirected to a third-party page (usually hosted by the card-issuing bank’s MPI) to verify they’re the one making the purchase. It can reduce a merchant’s exposure to chargebacks and fraud, but may confuse customers, and is required for certain transaction types in some countries (e.g., the UK). |
AVS | Address Verification Service | Compares the numeric portions of the billing address entered at checkout against the address on file with the card-issuing bank — for example, checking “101” and “92346” from “101 Main Street, Highland, CA 92346.” AVS is configured at the gateway level. It can cause false declines for valid orders, especially international ones, so decline rates are worth monitoring, with the threshold set no stricter than necessary. |
Cleartext | “In the clear” | Data that is stored or transmitted unencrypted. The opposite of ciphertext. |
Ciphertext | Data that is encrypted. The opposite of cleartext. | |
Gateway | Payment Gateway | The system that sits between Foxy and the customer’s bank during a transaction. When a customer submits checkout, Foxy communicates with the store’s gateway, which identifies the payment method (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.), routes it to the appropriate network, and returns a success or failure result to Foxy. Transactions are typically batched to the merchant account once a day. |
MPI | Merchant Plug-In | A component that handles 3-D Secure verifications. Some gateways include 3-D Secure natively; others rely on a third-party MPI (e.g., CardinalCommerce) to process it. |
PAReq / PARes | Payer Authentication Request / Payer Authentication Response | Values exchanged during payer authentication as part of the 3-D Secure protocol. |
VEReq / VERes | Verify Enrollment Request / Verify Enrollment Response | Values used in the 3-D Secure protocol to determine whether a customer has enrolled in 3-D Secure. |
Notes
AVS support and its exact behavior vary by country and card network — Visa and Mastercard support it in the US, Canada, and the UK; American Express supports it elsewhere.