Tag Archives: Information security

Criminal activities are around us.

Have you ever visited some shopping websites that have unbelievable low prices, or have you ever received some messages talking about making some cash by being a professional shopper? Some wise readers might have already awarded these sites and messages are related to credit card fraud.  Although, nowadays, more and more credit cards are equipped with computer chips for more safety, the incidents of credit card fraud are still increasing. Last year, the incidents rose 16%, which costed 16 billion in loose. How can they still do that with the improving security stander.

I think that it is important for people to know how currently the thefts steal our credit card information. Knowing the mechanism,especially the most updated ones, will help us protect our property in the future.

Currently, because the computer chip credit cards increase the difficulty of fraud in stores or restaurants, almost all the credit card fraud happen on the Internet. There are three major steps for criminals steal money from credit cards.

The first and most important step is gathering credit card information. There are multiple ways for doing it. Web fishing is the most conventional but still a very popular way. These fishing websites are normally pretend to be some shopping sites selling very cheap products. Some people might give them their payment information directly by shopping. Therefore, we should be extremely careful when we try to fulfil any form that required a credit card number and a billing address. It is good to double check the URL and Google the sits for some reviews. In addition to the fishing sites, fake Wi-Fi is another way to obtain your information. Some criminals set up free wireless access points in public area for people using. When you are using it, the criminals, using a method called package capture, can easily get any information that your phone is sending or receiving.   If you are coincidently use this WIFI buying some products online even at sites such as amazon and Newegg, your payment information still might be stolen. Does it sound like something in movie? It is true, so be careful. Do not try to save a few bucks of data fee to use free WIFI in public areas, especially those without any signal encryption. We can see that current credit card fraud using Internet which has lower cost and risk compared to conventional method such as fake pos machines.

The second step is what we cannot see normally. All the leaked payment information is classified and packed. Then these packs of payment information will be selling on some marketing website on tor network.(an anonymous Internet ).  This pic blow is an example of how our payment information are sold online.

 

Normally, there is nothing we can do with this. This is impressive to see a huge amount of data are selling illegally here.

At the final stage, criminals will try to use the leaked payment information to get actual cash. There are a lot of way of money laundry. We should just remember that there is no easy money. The “easy” money is normally dirty. Do not be used as a money laundry machine by criminals.

At the end, if you are unlucky involved in any credit card fraud, you should contact your bank and local police immediately. Here is a url that shows the proper steps.