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January 24, 2022

Your stolen credit card details worth just $2 to crooks: report

If we’ve learned anything from the Ocean’s Eleven  movies, it’s that thieves on the highest level are quite sophisticated.

Istockphoto_240734-identity-theft Though, perhaps our notions that small-time crooks are just that – small-time – have been a bit misguided.

Because, a new security report offers some insight to the largely-unknown world of credit and debit card fraud, and you’ll never guess how efficiently (and how cheap) your banking details are sold for on the street.

According to PandaLabs, the computer fraud arm of Panda Security, unverified stolen credit card details can be had for as little as $2 to any crook that wants them. For verified account details, where the buyer would know just what your available credit balance is, thieves would need to fork over about $80, the Panda report says.

From here, as the stakes grow, the so-called “banking details black market” appears to get more refined. Fraudsters can pay upwards of $700, Panda research shows, for access to account details with a guaranteed balance as high as $82,000.

And it’s not just credit cards that are ripe for the picking. While a physical credit card can be had for about $180 plus the cost of your banking details (between $2 and $700, according to Panda), crooks can even go ahead and purchase an entire fake ATM machine for skimming bank information.

Yes, $3,500 could get criminals a phantom ATM, which would, presumably, let consumers pop in their cards, forfeit their banking info and password unwittingly, only to find that the machine is “out of order” and can’t dispense any cash.

Where are crooks going to get your stolen bank details? That’s the most interesting part.

While the usual back-alley exchanges still happen, Panda says that criminals have been getting much more “brazen about their activities.”

According to the security firm, scammers can now visit Facebook and Twitter pages that facilitate sales of stolen credit and debit card details, right out in the open.

By Jason Buckland, MSN Money

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...