Is a MOTO payment a card-not-present transaction?
Yes. MOTO, for mail order and telephone order, is a card-not-present transaction keyed by the merchant’s staff instead of the shopper. It carries its own indicator in the authorization. In Europe, MOTO payments fall outside strong customer authentication, so issuers and schemes monitor the MOTO flag closely.
In detail
Yes. MOTO stands for mail order and telephone order. The shopper gives card details by phone, post or form, and the merchant’s staff key them into a virtual terminal. No terminal reads the card, so MOTO is a card-not-present transaction, with its own indicator in the authorization message.
Why the MOTO flag matters
In Europe, MOTO payments are not treated as electronic payments initiated by the payer, so strong customer authentication does not apply to them. That makes the flag sensitive. Sending ordinary e-commerce payments as MOTO to avoid 3-D Secure breaks scheme rules, and issuers decline or dispute suspicious MOTO volume.
What operators should watch
- The share of MOTO in each merchant’s volume, compared with what was declared at onboarding.
- PCI DSS scope: staff who hear and type card numbers bring the phone environment into scope.
- Alternatives such as payment links, which let the shopper enter the card and authenticate.
More in Card-Present vs Card-Not-Present and in the episode on 3-D Secure and SCA exemptions.