Good reminder to keep on top of your accounts and to be cautious online —
A Feb. 21 report by Andrea Draghetti, the head of threat intelligence at D3Lab, revealed that a well-known illegal marketplace and carding site called B1ack Stash has dropped a free giveaway of more than a million stolen credit cards to its users. The “massive collection of sensitive data containing over 1 million unique credit and debit cards,” was published to the criminal forum on Feb. 19 and contained six archives comprising a total of 1,018,014 cards.
It is understood that the data included such highly sensitive information as the primary account number of the credit cards concerned, along with expiration dates and the card verification value, CVV2, security code. But that’s not all; there are also cardholder details such as their full name, address, date of birth and telephone number as well as email address. Pretty much everything you would need to commit credit card fraud or launch phishing attacks against the cardholder.
Full article is available here. The original D3Lab announcement is available here.
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What to Do If Your Credit Card Information is Stolen
Federal law can limit the amount of money you’re liable for in the event of identity theft when you use credit cards to make purchases, so long as you respond quickly. Also, some credit card issuers are all too aware of the problem and may voluntarily agree to limit losses and help consumers.
Millions of American consumers have been through this. Stay alert to the possibility that it could happen to you, even after taking every precaution, and plan to take action quickly to limit the losses and regain your identity.
What can you do to help protect your credit card information from being stolen?
Be mindful of all the ways thieves can get your credit card numbers and be aware of when you’re vulnerable. Watch your mail, be careful interacting with emails, know what you’re downloading, don’t open your financial accounts on public Wi-Fi networks, look carefully for signs of tampering at gas pumps and other automated credit card readers, and watch the news for data breaches at big companies—they happen more than you might think.
Most credit cards use chip technology, rather than a magnetic strip, as these are designed to be more difficult to hack for in-store purchases where chip readers are enabled. Unfortunately, despite the switch to chips, instances of credit card fraud keep going up every year—while the chips make in-store fraud more difficult, potential identity thieves are always exploring new ways to navigate around protections to access your information. The best advice is to keep your eyes on your credit card statements, credit report, and credit score, so you’ll be aware of any sudden changes that could indicate identity theft.
How to Catch Someone Who Stole Your Credit Card
If you run into an issue with stolen credit card numbers, it’s generally pretty difficult to actually track down the perpetrator and even less likely that they’ll be apprehended or face prosecution. The best way to resolve the issue is to take the above steps in reporting the theft of your credit card information to your card issuer and leave the rest to the authorities.
My wife and I never use our debit cards. We always keep them locked via the bank app and stored away at home. We never have visitors at home.
Yet
Someone attempted to use her card for audible purchases. The bank actually let the first transaction through, even though we had the card locked, because the merchant tagged it as a recurring payment. The thief then attempted a larger transaction which my bank declined.
We’re actually annoyed the bank allowed the first transaction. We never use our debit card, and only (rarely) get cash from an atm, and always the bank’s atm at a branch.
My ultimate question is, though, how easy is it,l for thieves to guess card numbers. Because, if any merchant can tag any transaction as “recurring”, then this is problematic for cash account safety. Especially if the card lock feature can be bypassed
One of my credit card numbers has been stolen about every other year for the past five years, and I suspect it has been from restaurants. It always is the card that I use primarily for in-person transactions and some subscriptions. I use PayPal or virtual cards online, use tap to pay whenever possible, the card isn't anything fancy or prestigious, and my gas station card hasn't been stolen so it doesn't seem to be from skimmers at the pump. It's enough of an annoyance to change the card each time that I'd like to reduce the chances of it being stolen.
Is this a common problem, or is this somehow impacting me more than others?
Are there credit cards that don't have any numbers on them, similar to how the Apple card worked, or ways to request that? I have no need for physical numbers on the card, I'd rather have that in an app or just stored digitally. It has been surprisingly difficult to find any information about cards without physical numbers; it seems to be more common internationally but I haven't found anything in the US other than the Apple Card.