Whatever happened to honor among thieves?
According to a new report analyzing trends in the black market of stolen financial information, criminals who steal credit cards are finding ways to dupe buyers of the goods.
In some cases, these buyers are complaining online about the veracity of sellers. “Hey man, don’t know if you know this, but [redacted] pulled a [sic] exit scam,” one poster said to another, according to a report released Thursday from Intel Security Group’s McAfee Labs.
In other instances, sellers offered warranties to their buyers. One asked, “Are you fed up of being scammed, and ripped? Are you tired of scammers wasting your time, only to steal your hard-earned money?” To assure clients that they would not be defrauded, the salesman offered an exchange program in which a replacement card would be provided if the one sold initially did not work as expected.
The report also delved into the value of stolen credit cards and other financial data. It found that if a credit card is accompanied with a bank ID number, a CVV2 validation code, and the user’s date of birth, it’s worth about $30 to buyers in the United States. If the information is incomplete but the card is still usable, it can go for as little as $5.
Online payment service accounts with actual cash in them are worth slightly more. An account with $400-$1,000 can go for $20 to $50, while an account with $5,000 to $8,000 can be sold for as much as $300.
Other products that scammers sell online include video streaming services (an HBO account can go for less than $10); loyalty accounts (a hotel loyalty account with 100,000 points was on sale for $20); and digital comic book accounts (one was on sale for 50 cents).
“Cybercriminals also buy products that enable attacks,” the report noted. “This includes the purchase and rental of exploits and exploit kits that are fueling an enormous number of infections across the world. Cataloging the available offers is impossible because the field is growing at a tremendous rate.
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“We must conquer our apathy and pay attention to advice for fighting malware and other threats. Otherwise information from our digital lives may appear for resale to anyone with an Internet connection,” the authors concluded.
