Carding is one of the most vicious type of frauds nowadays. It involves illegally obtaining credit card data of other people and stealing money from personal accounts.
From the perspective of an ordinary cardholder there is always an invisible risk of losing money from his debit or credit card. One of the worst things about carding is that cardholders never know, whether their money is safe.
Moreover, there might be large delays between the moment the data is accessed by criminals and the moment the money is stolen. Some carders track the accounts of the cards they obtain and patiently wait until a large sum of money appears on the account.
In most cases carders do not just transfer money from the stolen card or withdraw cash from an ATM, as such simplicity allows the police to easily track them down. They use complicated schemes, one of which is purchasing goods online, paying a third person to pick up the delivery and then resell these goods to other people. The carders themselves do not usually get involved in this process in order to keep themselves safe, they just gather the money from the lower stages of the criminal chain.
There are several ways a carder might gain access to the card information. They might use all sorts of hacks and breaches in security systems of large companies, which have access to such data, which allows hackers to gain immediate access to thousands credit cards. Or they might lure the corresponding data directly from cardholders using phishing websites or fake terminals.
Some carders do not use the data they obtain, they simply sell it on black markets, available in darknet. Others do not get involved in hacking and stealing the information, they simply purchase it on the same black markets. Despite the fact carding is a serious crime and one stolen card may result in thousands of dollars stolen, on the black market the full information on credit or debit cards are sold for less than 30 bucks.
There are several steps each cardholder may take in order to be safer from carders, however, with the rapid development of electronic commerce, it is impossible to get 100% safe. In order to reduce risks, it is suggested to:
• Analyze each website, before entering credit card data there, with maximum attention to the website address;
• Try not to store large amounts of money on the debit cards;
• Use cards only on trusted website with high level of data security;
• Do not use cards in suspicious places, such as small shops without cameras, where a simple cashier might use a fake terminal to scan the credit card;
• Never enter the social security number on any websites.