"I am a Web site software programmer and have worked with the various credit card processing modules of our purchase process.
@stanfrombrooklyn: Regarding your comment, "Just typing your card numbers into the page is not enough to give the merchant your card numbers."
That is not quite true."
fearlessRich commented on ProFlowers Freezes Over $100 By "Verifying" Customer's Card
http://consumerist.com/358566/