Fergie's Tech Blog

Scammers Make Friends With Charities - UPDATE

Yazan Gable writes on the Symantec Security Response Blog:

Symantec has observed an interesting trend in the world of Internet-based credit card fraud: fraudsters are donating money to charity. How could this happen? In the world of carding, where stolen credit card information is bought and sold, carders need to know if the credit cards they are buying or selling can actually be used. It is sometimes difficult for them to verify this without raising any alarm bells and risking that their cards will be identified as stolen and disabled. As a consequence, a new trend is appearing.

Carders attempting to verify that a stolen credit card is legitimate and active have begun donating money to charity. By attempting to pay small amounts of money to various charities, including well known charities such as the Red Cross, carders can determine if a stolen credit card is valid depending on the success or failure of the transaction.

posted by Fergie @ 7/06/2007 10:55:00 AM