Cybercrimes are getting more and more common with the rapid development of internet. The growth of the online commerce industries leads to increasing attention of criminals. Carders are the scammers, who steal money from other people’s cards.
Most cardholders do not even suspect that they are at constant risk of being robbed by a carder. Moreover, many cardholders already have their card information compromised, while the money not stolen yet. The information about one’s particular card may be available to purchase on dark web for weeks, before it is used to make transactions on the behalf of cardholders.
Carders usually check the information they have, before they start pulling money of one’s card. They analyze, whether it is possible to make a transaction using the data they have. Some methods involve making small test purchases, so for regular cardholders it is necessary to pay attention to all suspicious transactions on their cards.
The business model of carding has been developing for years and is rather strong now. There are some weak points, where some criminals may be pursued by law enforcement agencies. However, operations at such weak points are usually done by outsource criminals, who do not possess information about carders themselves.
There are three specialized services provided in the carding industry:
• Running
• Dropping
• Shopping
Runners are people, who make illegal transactions from the stolen cards. Such people usually aim at withdrawing stolen funds in cash as fast as they can. This is due to the fact, the cardholders usually ask their banks to block their credit cards as soon as the money starts to disappear.
Dropping is another interesting service in the carding industry. The dropper is a person, who receives delivery or parcels for the carder. Carders cannot order to their own address the goods they buy using the stolen cards. That is why they might want to use the services of a dropper, who typically rents an apartment for several months with using his fake ID. This apartment becomes the delivery address for the criminally obtained goods.
The last industry-specific service is shopping. It involves hiring people, who would use the stolen cards in offline shops. These people are usually self-confident and not nervous, as they have to remain unsuspected, when they purchase something in retail store.