After a hacker steals your credit card number, you may
receive an email, text or phone call from your bank to alert
you of criminal or fraudulent activity with your credit card.
This is a helpful and necessary measure implemented by
financial institutions to help protect your accounts.
However, sometimes the alert is too late and the
cybercriminal has already replicated your card and gone on
a shopping spree. Have you wondered though, what exactly
happens to your stolen credit card number, and what is it
worth to a criminal? Well, we took a peek inside the
cybercriminal underground to explore this interesting and
frightening reality.

Cybercriminals have to race against the clock to use your
credit card information before you or your bank shuts down
the card. So, where does a stolen credit card go when it
gets into the wrong hands?

What Happens to Stolen Credit Card Info
Credit card thieves have to move fast once they have your
data. Here’s a look at their methods:
1. They take your stolen card data and add it to their
stockpile.
2. They sell a group of credit card numbers to other
cybercriminals on websites designed to process these
transactions (think of it as an eBay for eVil).
3. The buyer of the group may resell them again or begin
using the stolen data at online retailers.
4. The criminals also have hardware on hand to print fake
plastic cards in case they want to use the them at physical
stores.
5. The criminals make purchases of goods that they can
resell for quick cash.
How Criminals Price Cards
Once they have your card data, the criminals selling the info
have to price it. And not all credit cards are worth the same
price to criminals who are buying. Here’s how they
determine what’s “good.”
1. The criminal who wants to purchase a batch of cards may
make a few small transactions to test if the card is still
active, or known as “live.”
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2. If the card is sold with the victim’s address and
additional information can be appended to it, such as
mother’s maiden name, SSN and date of birth, those
additional details make the card more valuable.
3. If the criminal selling the card can also provide
purchasing behaviors, that’s even better. For example, the
behavior data may indicate that you routinely used your
card at Target and Lowes in South Carolina. By adding your
shopping habits to the card, the card is worth even more
money because the criminals know that the victim or
financial institution might miss a fraudulent charge if they
can pretend they are you and shop like you in your
hometown.
Eventually, the card data reaches the hands of criminals
who can use the cards and associated data to commit
fraud. Armed with these stolen cards, the criminals have the
tools to make fraudulent purchases of goods that can be
resold, including gift cards and consumer electronics. Once
those goods are sold, the value of the card is realized. All of
the intermediate reselling of card data in the supply chain
hinges on the ultimate purchase and reselling of goods in
this process.
How Retailers Can Protect Themselves & Their Customers
If you have a business that takes credit card information
from your customers, Payment Card Industry (PCI)
compliance is often not enough to protect your customers’
debit and credit card data. Consider taking these three
steps to better protect this data:
1. Make sure that any remote access to your network does
not have a side door that leads to your credit card data.
2. Train your employees on how to spot suspicious emails
to avoid letting the cybercriminals in through your trusted
staff.
3. Practice a credit card and debit card theft disaster to
make sure you know what to do in the event your systems
are breached.
Cybercriminals will continue to hit retailers, because that is
where the money is and their tactics have worked so far –
they have breached Target, Home Depot and according to
law enforcement, potentially thousands of other companies.
The key is not to become immune to the news of another
data breach or cyber incident at your favorite store. These
incidents are damaging to you as the retailer, your bank
and, ultimately, your wallet. Overall, NPR reporter Elise Hu
gets it right: “the damage does fall disproportionately on
retailers. They spend a lot of money on security to prevent
breaches of their payment systems and keep their names
out of hacking-related news.”

What Consumers Can Do to Protect Themselves
Consumers can’t always rely on an alert from their bank to
let them know their credit card has been stolen. For their
own good, it’s up to consumers to keep an eye on their
bank and credit card statements to catch any fraudulent
charges as they come in – and work to correct the damage
immediately, which means contacting the financial
institution and reporting the fraud, and closing the card
before further damage can be done. If your Social Security
number was stolen in a breach, you also could be at risk for
a criminal to open new accounts in your name. Checking
your credit reports regularly can help you spot unfamiliar
accounts so you can shut them down. You’re entitled to
your credit reports for free every year from the three major
credit reporting agencies.


http://abcnews.go.com/Business/credit-card-stolen/story?id=25633648

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