Identity Theft
Credit Card for Women and International Theft Running into Billions
The international system of falsification of credit cards with an annual turnover of 1 billion dollars was revealed in USA. The super hackers established rather effective, profitable, and almost irresistible scheme, which was used by the fraudsters of all types, including terrorists. According to the data of secret agents, the operations for the capture of electronic money involve the traditional "families" of organized crime, "free artists" from the background of "white collars", and also Russian gangsters of New York and Los-Angeles.
Using handmade "reading" devices with a cost of $50 and a cigarette pack-size high-tech device for data pick up, the fraudsters may easily read the info from the magnetic stripes of credit cards (no matter good or bad credit you have) and send electronic messages abroad, where the exact copies of these plastics are manufactured.
As the cards are not stolen from the cardholders, they have no idea that they had been robbed, until the crazy bills with the purchases and expenses they had never made, come to their mail boxes. Credit card companies have no idea about the fraud as well until the cardholders notify them.
"This is the latest, the most sophisticated, and easy to accomplish kind of robbery of the XXI century, without the use of weapon, threats and racket", - say the agents of special service. "The card holders carry their low APR plastics in their wallets and can't believe that they could have been robbed distantly", - says Betsy Browder, the assistant of the chief executive of The Federal Trade Commission for the Consumer Protection.
But the worst thing is that this method of robbery is used by the terrorists. The members of Al-Qaida have the specialists, skilled at this method. The secret agents say that some of the terroristic operations were sponsored this way. In Afghanistan there is even guidance for teaching fraud with credit cards.
The security agencies established new departments in New York and seven other cities in US to fight credit thieves. But this struggle is not an easy task. The most experienced hackers know how to cover up the trail, and it gets impossible to track them down and to arrest. The fraudsters are invisible, inaudible, and don't leave finger marks and other tracks. But the world can't abandon credit cards and use cash anymore.
How fraudsters work.
Step 1. The information is copied from the both sides of credit card, all the figures and names, for the most part, from the magnetic stripe. This is done with a special "reading" device in stores, restaurants and other merchants. Such device may be bought online or handmade. Such device may easily fit into the pocket.
Step 2. Usually, these are shop assistants, waiters at restaurants, gas station attendants accepting gasoline cards, who pick up the data from your plastic. Customers give them their cards, they swipe them through the terminals, and then make the second invisible thievish reading. This way they can "read off" about 40-50 credit cards in a couple of days. After that the data and the device are passed to the mediator or to the hacker. This service is usually lavishly paid - the assistant or waiter gets around $500 - 1500.
Step 3. Now the hacker throws the data on to the computer files and passes them to the fake credit card manufacturers by Internet or even phone.
Step 4. The real plastic cards are produced somewhere in Malaysia or Indonesia, where the labor is cheap and the law is not strict to such fraudsters. There are special machines, which guarantee the exact copy of all the data, including the hologram and the magnetic recording, and, of course, the design and the size of a card.
Step 5. The "clones" of credit cards are shipped to USA, where they get into the hands of fraudsters. With one credit card they can steal, in average, to the sum of $2500 - 3000 with a guarantee of security, as right after the emptying, the fake card is destroyed. The control system is late to react.
Comments
this is crazy that r credit numbers can be used by terrorists for sponsoring
their terroristic acts
