With the advancement of technology and the advent of the Internet, not only has society become modernized, but criminals and thieves have also become modernized. Now it is the acting interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who has warned of the rise of scams and cybercrime. Marlaska presented a strategy to deal with the rise of cybercrime in Spain. In 2022, the State Security Forces and Corps registered 375,506 criminal violations, 72% more than in 2019.
The new method of fraud that we avoid is called carding. This fraud is based on duplicating virtual cards and making small purchases online to avoid being noticed, so anyone with a credit card can be scammed by this method.
This fraud can be carried out over the phone, through a call where card information is requested, through an email pretending to be a bank or a payment application such as Paypal. Besides saving money, criminals share card details on the “deep web” to make more money.
What techniques do they use?
What techniques do cybercriminals use in carding?
- Fraud techniques through emails or phone calls impersonating a trusted third party.
- The distribution of malware, computer code that infects equipment, affects its operation, disables systems and steals information.
- Databases of clients or website users published on the deep web.
- Accessing a fraudulent website pretending to be real where personal data is entered.
- Use of card data readers.
- Theft of card details using a tampered ATM.
How can we avoid these scams?
Cybersecurity experts recommend following these tips:
- Use a secure shopping website with https security protocol.
- Activate card notifications to inform you about movements or payments that have not been made.
- Regularly review bank account transactions
- Update the operating system with antivirus and firewall.
- Do not open suspicious emails.
- Do not give out any bank details in a phone call.
- Destroy expired credit cards.
