3D Secure

Your customers can enjoy safer online shopping thanks to the 3D Secure support that is available to all merchants that process payments with Amazon Payment Services.

3D Secure (3DS) adds a layer of authentication on top of the CVV code commonly used to prevent payment card fraud. Customers who use a 3D Secure-enrolled card perform an additional verification step during the payment process.

How does 3D Secure work?

By default, merchants are enrolled in the Standard 3D Secure service by virtue of processing payments with Amazon Payment Services.

In practice, 3D Secure authentication is performed as a seamless part of the payment process. When Amazon Payment Services detects that a card is enrolled in 3D Secure it will redirect the customer to a page on a 3DS Access Control Server (ACS).

The ACS sends a one-time PIN (OTP) to the customer, commonly by SMS. The customer enters the OTP on the ACS page and the payment is authenticated. Note that the 3D Secure authentication process is continuously evolving and that the authentication process your customer follows may change. However, that does not affect your payment processing workflow.

Note that not all payment cards are enrolled with 3D Secure. Where a payment card is not enrolled in 3D Secure the 3D Secure step is simply bypassed.

It is also possible to bypass the 3D Secure authentication process based on a set of rules that you define in the back office. Or, you can make use of your preferred 3D Secure provider to handle 3DS authentication and simply pass the authentication payload back to Amazon Payment Services.

Customizing 3D Secure

While 3D Secure is a valuable component in the fight against payment fraud there are circumstances where you may want to bypass 3D Secure. You may want to use 3D Secure more selectively -- by using an external provider, or by executing 3D Secure authentication outside of the usual purchase transaction.

Amazon Payment Services provides a range of custom 3D Secure processing options that are adaptable to your unique requirements.

Flex 3D Secure

Merchants can fine-tune the 3D Secure response to bypass 3D Secure on some transactions. Under certain circumstances you may choose to bypass the 3D Secure process to reduce the number of actions your customer has to take -- and to deliver a more seamless payment experience.

Amazon Payment Services gives you the option to waive the 3D Secure process where a transaction meets conditions that you set. We call it Flex 3D Secure.

External 3D Secure

You can choose to use an external 3D Secure processor instead of the Amazon Payment Services 3D Secure processing capabilities.

If your payment processing workflow already makes use of a preferred 3D Secure processing partner you may prefer to continue processing 3D Secure with your preferred external service.

Standalone 3D Secure

You can use our standalone 3D Secure service to process 3D Secure authentication at a specific point in your transaction workflow.

Ordinarily, your customer would be asked to complete 3D Secure once a purchase is made and a charge is applied to their payment card. However, in some instances, you may want to process 3D Secure as a distinct step.

Get in touch

3D Secure is a complex topic. If you have any issues or concerns around 3D Secure, please feel free to reach out to our team at merchantsupport-ps@amazon.com.