What Is Carding?

Carding is a form of fraud in which sto🐽len credit or debit card information is used to purchase prepaid store-branded gift cards that are the equivalent of cash.

The stolen information or the gift cards can be sold to others to be used to purchase goods. Credit and debit card thieves who are involved in this type of fraud are called carders.

How Carding Works

Carding usually starts with a hacker gaining access to a store’s or website’s credit card processing system. The hacker obtains a list of cred⭕it or debit cards that were recently used to make purchases. Hackers can exploit weaknesses in the security software intended to protect credit card accounts.

In oth🍒er cases, hackers use♚ a scanner to copy the coding from the magnetic strip on a physical card being used in a store.

In yet another method, credit card information is grabbed at the source by accessing the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:account holder’s personal information from a bank account.

The use of PINs and chips in newer cards have made it more difficult to use stolen cards in point-of-sale transactions. Card-not-present sales are now the primary s♌ource of theft.

The Carders' Role

The hacker sells the stolen credit or debit card numbers to a third party—a carder—who uses the stolen information to purchase a gift card.

The carding industry is run from carding forums. The sites are used to buy and sell stolen credit and debit card information. The sites also are used for money laundering.

Consumer Protection Measures

If a physical credit card is stolen, and the owner reports the theft, consumer protection law limits the accountholder's liability to $50. If your card number is stolen and used fraudulently, you should have no liability, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

By the time the theไft is noticed, a buyer has usually used the stolen information to buy high-value goods such as cell phones, televisions, and computers, as these goods do not require registration and can be resold later.

A thir✤d party is often used to receive the goods and then ship them to other locations. This limits the carder’s risk of drawing attention to themselves. The carder may also sell the goods on🎃 websites that offer a degree of anonymity to sellers and buyers.

Card Terms

Carding comes with its own language. Here are a couple of the common terms:

Fullz

Fullz is slang for "full information."

The fullz package includes a person's real name, address, and form of identification. The information is sufficient for use in identity theft and financial fraud.

Credit Card Dump

A credit card dum𒀰p is🌼 an unauthorized digital copy of the information on a credit card.

It can be obtained by copying the information from the physical card or hacking the issuer's payments network.

Although the technique is not new, its scale has expanded t𒈔remendously in recent years, with some attacks involving millions of victims.

How Companies Fight Carding Fraud

Companies are trying various strategies to st🍬ay ahead of carders. Some include requiring information at checkout that would not be available to the carder.

Address Verification System (AVS)

An address v🐟erification system (AVS) automatically compares the billing address supplied at checkout in an online purchase to the address on rec🧸ord with the credit card company.

A properly functioning AVS system can stop transactions that don't match. For partial address matches, the seller has the discretion to accept or not accept the transaction.

AVS is currently used in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

IP Geolocation Check

An IP geolocation system compares the IP location of the user's computer to the billing address entered on the checkout page. If they don't match, fraud may be indicated.

These incidenꦰts warrant further investigation since there are l✅egitimate reasons, such as travel, for a buyer to be away from home.

Card Verification Value (CVV)

A card verification value (CVV) code is the three- or four-digit number on a credit card that adds an extra layer of sec🦩urity for making purchases when the buyer is not physically present.

Since it is on the card itself, it is intended to verify that the person making a phone or online purchase has a physical copy of the card.

If your card number is stolen, a thief without a CVV will have difficulty using it.

The CVV can be stored in the card's magnetic strip or in the card's chip. The seller submits the CVV with all other data as part of the transaction. The issuer can approve, refer, or decline transactions that fail CVV validation, depending on the issuer's procedures.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a technology that requires two or more independent credentials to verify a user's login or other transaction. These may include a password plus an authenticator token or biometric data.

Using MFA creates a layered process that makes it difficult for an unauthorized person to access a target. MFA originally used only 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:two factors, but additional factors are becoming common.

CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apar𝓀t) is a security measure that requires the user to complete a test to prove he or she is a human and not hacking software.

The most commonly used CAPTCHA test asks the user to type a random series of numbers or letters displayed on the screen. Others require the user to spot and click on the anomaly in a group of pictures, such as the picture that doesn't include a motorcycle.

These challenges are designed to be easy for humans, but less so for computers.

Velocity Checks

Velocity checks monitor the number of transactions attempted by the same card or site vi♉sitor within a given number of seconds or minutes.

Most people do not make multiple payments in quick succession, especially when the payments are so rapid as to be beyond the capacity of a human being.

Velocity can be monitored by dollar amount, user IP address, billing address, Bank Identification Number (BIN), and devꦛice.

How Will I Use This in Real Life?

In many cases, you will know that your information has been hacked only when an unauthorized purchase shows up in your credit card or debit card account. Your best practice is to keep an eye on your accounts and immediately report any unauthorized purchases to the comꦿpany that issued the card.

In other cases, the theft occurred because you slipped up:

• Don't give your password information to anyone, ever.
• Don't give any credit card or bank account information to anyone who contacts you by phone, text, or email. If you think the call might be legitimate, look up the contact information elsewhere and verify the call.
• Don't click on links in emails or text messages that you're not certain are from trusted sources.

Unfortunately, scammers have increa♏singly sophisticated tools at their disposal. They can even clone voices and alter images to make it appear that someone you trust needs help.

The Bottom Line

Credit card and deb🅘it card information is stolen to facilitate various illicit schemes,💝 including identity theft and money laundering.

One particularly pernicious form of credit card fraud is carding. This involves using stolen credit card and debit card account details to buy gift cards that can be used like cash. The process usually involves at least two parties, a thief who obtains the information and a buyer who purchases the information to us꧟e it.

You can minimi▨ze the threat by che🍰cking your account balances regularly and immediately reporting any unauthorized purchases. Stay alert to attempts to defraud you directly by tricking you into revealing information by phone, email, or text.