Types of credit card fraud

Stolen Card Fraudmachine), which reads the magnetic strip as the user
When a card holder loses or has their credit cardunknowingly passes their card through it. These
stolen, it is possible for the thief to make unauthorizeddevices are often used in conjunction with a pin-hole
purchases on that card up until the card is cancelled.camera to read the user's pin number at the same
Businesses that accept credit cards are not permittedtime.
to request supplemental ID from the cardholder, unlessTo prevent Cards in countries such as the UK are
the credit card is not signed[citation needed]. A thiefissued featuring a smart chip with public key
can potentially purchase thousands of dollars inencryption. The chip cannot be copied, but the card
merchandise or services before the card holder or thenumber, expiry date and security code can be, and this
bank realize that the card is in the wrong hands.set of data is often sufficient to use the victim's credit
Self-serve payment systems such as gas stations arecard account for fraudulent purposes with so-called
also highly prone to accepting a stolen credit card, as"card not present" transactions, e.g., manual input, over
there is no verification of the card holder's identity,the telephone or internet.
however many stations are trying to prevent this byCarding
adding a check requiring the user to key in a zip code.Carding is a term used by fraudsters for a process
The zip code must match the code registered to thethey use to verify that sets of stolen credit card data
credit card or the transfer will fail.are still valid. The fraudster will present each set of
Account Takeover Fraudcredit card details in turn on a website that has
Fraud perpetrators call in and impersonate actualreal-time transaction processing, making a purchase
cardholders using stolen personal information. Theyfor a very small monetary amount so as not to use up
have the address and other information of thethe card's credit limit, and so as not to attract the
cardholder changed to an address they control.attention of a human reviewer to the transaction.
Additional cards and possibly PIN mailers areOften, an online donation site for a charity is used
requested and issued to the new address and usedinstead of an eCommerce merchant, since there is no
by the fraudsters to make purchases and/or obtainneed to find an item of a suitable price to put in the
cash advances.virtual shopping cart, nor to supply shipping details. The
Sometimes the fraudster will attempt to addcarder may do this manually with a web browser, or
themselves or an alias that they control as anmay write automated software to interface to the
authorized user to the account in order to make itwebsite's checkout or billing forms.
easier to commit the fraud.In the past, carders used to use computer programs
Credit Card Mail Order Fraudcalled "generators" to produce a sequence of credit
Using a stolen credit card number, or computercard numbers, and then test them to see which were
generated card number, a thief will order stolen goods.valid accounts. However, this process is no longer
Skimmingviable due to widespread requirement by internet credit
Skimming is the theft of credit card information by acard processing systems for additional data such as
dishonest employee of a legitimate merchant, manuallythe billing address, the 3 to 4 digit Card Security Code
copying down numbers, or using a magnetic stripeand/or the card's expiry date. Nowadays, carding is
reader on a pocket-sized electronic device. Commonmore typically used to verify credit card data obtained
scenarios for skimming are restaurants or bars wheredirectly from the victims by Skimming or Phishing.
the skimmer has possession of the victim's credit cardA set of credit card details that has been verified in
out of their immediate view. The skimmer will typicallythis way is known in fraud circles as a phish (see
use a small keypad to unobtrusively transcribe the 3 orPhishing). A carder will typically sell data files of phish to
4 digit Card Security Code which is not present on theother individuals who will carry out the actual fraud.
magnetic strip.Market price for a phish ranges from US$1.00 to
Many instances of skimming have been reportedUS$50.00 depending on the type of card, freshness of
where the perpetrator has put a device over the cardthe data and credit status of the victim.
slot of a public cash machine (Automated teller