A site that sells stolen credit cards

Stolen credit cards are openly sold in the cyber marketplace, as one Russian carding site is selling 554 stolen Australian credit cards for $4.50 per record.

If you’re an American or an Australian whose credit card was lost or stolen, the chances are you’ll find your credit card account at a Russian carding site. The site has on its list 554 Australian cards. There are some 1600 cards from the cyber victims in the US and the German victims account for 537 cards. In other words, while the Americans are the most victimized, the second and third spots are taken by hapless Australian and German victims of the card fraud. The access to the stolen cards with full details is available for $4.50 per record at this Russian carding site. The details include victim’s first name, partial card number, state and city. Within Australia, the site shows maximum number of victims from NSW (135) followed by Victoria (100), Queensland (60) and western Australia (40). There are apparently several sites in the murky business of selling stolen credit cards, but most other underground carding websites sell Australian cards from upwards of $10 each. In comparison the price tag of $4.50 at this Russian carding site is rather cheap. For the U.S record, the Mastercard credentials fetched $2 each, while the American Express could be accessed for $4.50 each. Additionally, the purchases come with guarantees on the validity of the cards from the Russian hackers who established the site in July 2011. Tested via payments sites like Authorize.net, each card was backed by a refund guarantee. Glowhost.com in the U.S most probably appeared to host the rogue site. According to IDG News Service, fraud against Australian-issued EMV cards increased from $12.9 million in 2010 to $16.4 million in 2011 which probably reflects in the glut of stolen cards at the site. The hackers appear to be a step ahead of card security schemes, according to which the chip, a gold square on the face of bank cards could dramatically reduce the information accessible to fraudsters. However, this security feature remains to be introduced as industry imposed deadlines have extended and passed. Some 40,000 small businesses across Australia, according to Visa were at a higher risk of fraud last year.