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03.13.07
Meet The Carding Crew
 By
David Utter
Forget about selling drugs, the real money is in information, and according to an Australian security professional, the United States served as a more profitable territory for illicit hacking than illicit drugs.
A few valid credit card numbers can be the key to thousands of dollars in profit. Where drug dealers run the risk of being shot in the face by rivals, junkies, or cops while peddling their wares, computer crime lacks the up close and personal facet of selling drugs.
It's far more likely that credit card thieves will never meet, unless it's by chance, and even then these anonymous criminals probably wouldn't know each other by sight. They do know them by the money they can grift from others.
A PC Authority article cited a security pro on the riches to be had by carding:
"In 2006, it was more financially rewarding in the United States to trade in illegal financial information than to sell drugs," he told the Australian MediaConnect Kickstart conference this week.
Cote, the Country Manager for Fortinet Australia, providers of Universal Threat Management (UTM) security solutions, believes that professional hackers are forming new specialized crime-software syndicates, complete with their own illegal lexicon.
That lexicon includes Coders, the classic malicious hacker type who write viruses, and Phishers, who set up phony financial websites or use spyware to grab valuable information from victims.
There are the Kids, who have long since put aside zip guns and spray paint in favor of swapping card numbers for cash. "These are 15-18 year olds, who trade in stolen information. They'll sell a block of up to 5,000 credit card numbers. They'll make a number of two cent or five cent transactions to test them. And if one of those hits, they're laughing," Cote said in the report.
At the opposite end from Kids sit the Mobs. They have the finances to make these crimes profitable for the other criminals to commit. When it comes to getting money from victims and making the Drop, Cote said the E-Gold service was the choice of scammers. "E-gold does not condone any illegal activity, but they are essentially a very convenient service for money laundering," he said.
The Federal Trade Commission details information about fighting identity theft on its website.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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