The Black Market for YOUR Credit Card

In a chilling report, The Cyber-Crime Black Market: Uncovered [PDF] recently published, the black market for credit card and bank details is shown to be thriving, and almost as easy as cart shopping on amazon.com.

The level of detail is shocking. You can buy with a “money back guarantee”, bank and credit card information – with pricing ranging from $10 to $1500, depending on the credit both available and the strength of the credit history of the person who’s details you are buying.

Highlights of the report are:

1. Simple card information available from just $2 per card.
2. Free trials are available for criminals who want to “try out” the information.
3. Full address details, credit card and bank account information is available for a single person.
4. You can get bulk discounts for buying bulk information.
5. Cyber-criminals will even make a purchase for you, so you don’t get caught, passing the goods on, for a fee.
6. Teams are available that will even set up fake stores with fake malware products for you, so a criminal can gather their own treasure-trove of financial data.
7. You can rent botnets for sending out spam for as little as $15. For a few dollars more, you can rent VPN connections to hide your identity from the police!
8. Some of these rogue providers even have Facebook and twitter accounts, to make it easier to find them.

What can you do to protect yourself?

1. Be very careful who you give your credit card and bank details to.
2. If you don’t trust a site, don’t use it.
3. Make sure your antivirus and anti-spyware software is always up-to-date.
4. Be exceedingly careful when you download email – use good anti-spam software, and an antivirus software that can scan your inbox.
5. If AT ALL in doubt, don’t buy.

All the security software in the world cannot replace common sense when providing your details on-line, so think first, before pressing submit.