It may be the only thing I can do to help mitigate credit card fraud but is it not the solution to preventing it. Credit card companies should be operating on the theory that people freely throw around their credit card number (because, let's face it, a lot of people do) and come up with solutions that do not rely on hiding that information.

Obscurity of process/information can definitely be a benefit to the security of a system but it should not be the solution. The system should be designed for the absolute worst case scenario where this process/information could be exposed.

I realize this can only go so far until at some point there is going to be some sort of secret that needs to be kept (i.e. physical hardware key, encryption codes, etc) where if this is cracked your system is exposed and at that point you need to have some sort of plan B to regain control and minimize damage.