ID Theft Down in the Dumps

Did you ever wonder how your credit card information is bought, soldor transferred? Have you ever wondered how someone uses your creditcard information after it is stolen to commit fraud? There are a numberof ways, but the preferred method is through using dumps. A dump is afile containing the data that is stored on a credit card’s magneticstrip. Dumps are the favorite currency of credit card fraud these days.

Carders, the people who deal in stolen credit card information andlaundering, 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 expirydate work pretty well for on-line purchases, but the difficulty is ingetting the goods. Where should they be shipped to?

Dumps, on the other hand, allow the carder to dump the data ontopretty much any magnetic card. This includes hotel room keys, discountcards, gift cards, and other credit cards. This makes it easy tolaunder credit cards. A fraudster can simply use their own credit cardand dump some stolen data onto it to purchase anything in person. Whenthe cashier checks their identification, everything looks above board.

The only potential caveat is if the cashier compares the credit cardnumber printed on the receipt with the one on the card itself. But haveyou ever seen anyone do that? I haven’t seen it, although I should haveconsidering it is one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. And often thecredit card number isn’t even printed in full on the receipt, which isalso one of Visa’s fraud prevention tips. Unfortunately, since thehardware that reads magnetic strips is easy and cheap to get, we willhave this problem until the technology changes to something moresecure. In the mean time, merchants should keep an eye on theiremployees according to Visa’s fraud prevention tips. If an employee isseen swiping credit cards through a device that isn’t part of the dailybusiness procedures, the activity should be reported immediately.