Internet Exchange for Fraudulent Credit Card Data Uncovered

Finjan Says Site Typical of Criminal Underground Use of the Net

(08.04.08) - Researchers at 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. (Finjan: ma)