Post by iceman on Mar 31, 2008 4:48:02 GMT -5
ID Theft Down in the Dumps
Did you ever wonder how your credit card information is bought, sold or transferred? Have you ever wondered how someone uses your credit card information after it is stolen to commit fraud? There are a number of ways, but the preferred method is through using dumps. A dump is a file containing the data that is stored on a credit card’s magnetic strip. Dumps are the favorite currency of credit card fraud these days.
Carders, the people who deal in stolen credit card information and laundering, pay premium prices for dumps. Premium is around $8.00 US, while simple credit card numbers, names and expiration dates are around $1.00 – 2.00 US. Sure, having a credit card number, name and expiry date work pretty well for on-line purchases, but the difficulty is in getting the goods. Where should they be shipped to?
Dumps, on the other hand, allow the carder to dump the data onto pretty much any magnetic card. This includes hotel room keys, discount cards, gift cards, and other credit cards. This makes it easy to launder credit cards. A fraudster can simply use their own credit card and dump some stolen data onto it to purchase anything in person. When the cashier checks their identification, everything looks above board.
The only potential caveat is if the cashier compares the credit card number printed on the receipt with the one on the card itself. But have you ever seen anyone do that? I haven’t seen it, although I should have considering it is one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. And often the credit card number isn’t even printed in full on the receipt, which is also one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. Unfortunately, since the hardware that reads magnetic strips is easy and cheap to get, we will have this problem until the technology changes to something more secure. In the mean time, Happy scamming
Did you ever wonder how your credit card information is bought, sold or transferred? Have you ever wondered how someone uses your credit card information after it is stolen to commit fraud? There are a number of ways, but the preferred method is through using dumps. A dump is a file containing the data that is stored on a credit card’s magnetic strip. Dumps are the favorite currency of credit card fraud these days.
Carders, the people who deal in stolen credit card information and laundering, pay premium prices for dumps. Premium is around $8.00 US, while simple credit card numbers, names and expiration dates are around $1.00 – 2.00 US. Sure, having a credit card number, name and expiry date work pretty well for on-line purchases, but the difficulty is in getting the goods. Where should they be shipped to?
Dumps, on the other hand, allow the carder to dump the data onto pretty much any magnetic card. This includes hotel room keys, discount cards, gift cards, and other credit cards. This makes it easy to launder credit cards. A fraudster can simply use their own credit card and dump some stolen data onto it to purchase anything in person. When the cashier checks their identification, everything looks above board.
The only potential caveat is if the cashier compares the credit card number printed on the receipt with the one on the card itself. But have you ever seen anyone do that? I haven’t seen it, although I should have considering it is one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. And often the credit card number isn’t even printed in full on the receipt, which is also one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. Unfortunately, since the hardware that reads magnetic strips is easy and cheap to get, we will have this problem until the technology changes to something more secure. In the mean time, Happy scamming