March 28 2008
Steal one, get one free
SellCVV2 a sophisticated Internet exchange for fraudulent credit card data takes a tip from retailers and offers introductory offers and discounts for bulk purchases.
Researchers at security company Finjan, have revealed the existence of another underground exchange service - SellCVV2 - promoting the sale of fraudulent credit card data with guarantees and volume discounts for large-scale fraudsters.
"The site, which appears to use Google's Blogspot service, is typical of a number of portals promoting the exchange of fraudulent card data. But what is apparent from the SellCVV2 site is the level of commercialization of the traders involved," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Finjan's chief technology officer.
"Prices are segmented depending on whether a card is a Classic Visa or MasterCard, a premium account such as a Gold, Platinum or Business/Corporate card and its country of issue," he said.
"Prices typically range from $38.00 per set of card data for premium card accounts in small volumes, going down to $10.00 for Classic card data in volumes of 100 or more. Customers are also being offered trial set of data, as well as a guarantee on account details that do not work," he added.
The fact that trial card data, guarantees and volume discounts are being offered is, says Ben-Itzhak, symptomatic of the organised criminal activities who are probably behind this and other sites that Finjan's research team have discovered.
"If further proof were needed that there is a very serious problem facing the card acceptance and processing industry, this is it. The level of sophistication shown on the site, acts as a clear warning to anyone who thinks card fraud is a containable problem," he said.
Rumours that SellCVV2 had to switch off 3DSecure payment because there had been a drop-off in sales are completely untrue ;-)
