Carding is the modern type of credit card fraud, which involves stealing money from one’s credit card. This fraud is very relevant today, as the industry of carding is constantly growing and it is necessary to be aware of it.
Carders usually gain access to personal credit card information by using illegal methods such as skimming, phishing, hacking or buying the data on dark web. Despite the banks and shops invent new methods of payment authentication, carders usually find ways to get through this protection.
How do carders steal money
Carding is an illegal fraud punished by law, which means that carders have not only to gain access to one’s credit card, but also find a way of withdrawing money without leaving any tracks.
The most common way of stealing the money is purchasing goods with prepaid cards of online shops. Scammers purchase such gift cards, then use them to buy goods from the online shops and then resell the goods. The most complicated schemes of carding involve doing each of the mentioned steps by different parties: first person gains access to the information, sells it to the person, who purchases gift cards, the gift cards are sold to another person, who purchases goods using these cards, the goods are passed to another person, who resells them.
In most cases, carders purchase electronics, brand clothes or other expensive goods, which do not require registration, in order to finish the process as quickly as possible. Reselling one cellphone for 300$ is much safer for them than reselling 30 cases for that cellphone worth 10$ each, as it draws less attention.
How to protect yourself from carding
Unfortunately, it is impossible to be absolutely safe from carders. They might simply hack the database of one’s bank and steal the money, with no regard how carefully each cardholder used his card.
However, there are several precautionary measures, which might significantly reduce the risks. First of all, it is necessary to avoid phishing websites. It means paying attention to the domains of the websites, before leaving the card information there. Secondly, it is important to enter credit card data only on trusted resources with high security protection. Thirdly, it is better to set up two-factor authentication. And last but not least, is to avoid skimming by taking any measures possible.
Taking all these steps does not guarantee full security, but it will require carder to put much more effort to get the data. It weeds out many scammers, who only use simple methods of stealing the credit card information.