Forum Moderators: phranque
Now, I consider it a possibility that our password was hacked, but I really believe it was acquired during all the recent activity over at Authorize.Net
This is just a heads up. If you're using Authorize, watch yourself closely.
There is a significant market on the net for lists of stolen credit card numbers. However, these numbers don't stay "ripe" for long.
When you (the criminal) buy a list of stolen credit card number, you have test them to find which ones are still "ripe" and which are "rotten". This is generally done by finding some online store and making hundreds of tiny purchases to check the cards. (The tiny purchase doesnt tip of the CC companies and many times not even CC owner)
After that it is only the matter of using a magnetic read/writer to transfer the CC info onto a card (doesnt matter what the name on the card is.. people never look) and going shopping. Some thieves purchase items online, but then you run the risk of police waiting for you when you pickup the packages.
If I were you I'd definitely inform the police, since ALL those card numbers are most definitely stolen.
I'm aware of the need to differentiate ripe from rotten numbers, and this is definitely what was happening here. However, the entries did not come from our online store, they were uploaded directly to our A.N. account.
We contacted them as soon as we saw it happening, and changed our account information. That stopped the uploading. We also provided relevant information for tracking the perp.... it could happen.
<snip>
BTW, I'm still a happy A.N. customer. In less than 10 minutes the entire situation was resolved over the phone... almost. Someone (me) still had to void hundreds of bogus transactions before closing.
[edited by: trillianjedi at 8:13 pm (utc) on Oct. 7, 2004]
[edit reason] See Sticky [/edit]