Credit Card Details In The Hands Of Criminals
Posted July 22nd, 2009
Watch out as your name could be on the list of around 50,000 Australians whose personal credit card details have been unlawfully leaked with the help of phishing by criminals. Criminals are now in a position to spend other people’s money as the identity of some 10,900 employees of Microsoft and thousands of Australians have been released through a huge, worldwide credit card fraud.
A former Scotland Yard fraud squad officer, now the head of Lucid International, Colin Holder found his own details while obtaining a list of “hacked” accounts. This list is being sold on the black market to the highest bidder of individual names, and yours could be among them.
Beware of credit card fraud!
Gangs of criminals are using these details and buy IT goods and consumer electronics from retailers across the country. Many retailers fail to do proper credit card security checks and these are now being exposed on the behalf of the unsuspecting customer.
SmartHouse interviewed Holder recently and it seems that Australia ranks third highest behind the USA and the UK in illegal credit card fraud cases.
Over the past four years Holder collected information from various law enforcement organisations around the world. These include the FBI, police and anti-hacking and anti-fishing campaigners.
He said: “I recently got an email from a former FBI agent who is now working for Microsoft. He was inquiring about what data I had. I told him that I had data on over 9,000 Microsoft employees who had been compromised.”
Holder stated that large corporations were vulnerable, as data about their employees was freely available in the underground market. Many criminals steal private information in one country and then sell it to another, where the credit card details will be used to buy goods with mass market retailers.
He said: “Australians are very vulnerable. I have at least 50,000 identities on my database. When we get this data we pass it onto the appropriate authorities who in turn contact the owner of a credit card.”
According to Holder around a quarter of a million British bank and credit card accounts had been hacked so far by cyber thieves. A huge concern is his statement about the lack of security with bank employees surfing the Internet while having customer data open at the same time, and then falling prey to phishing attempts.
In the database of Lucid Intelligence are some 40 million people worldwide, tens of thousands of Australians and four million Brits. This database has been described as the largest of its kind anywhere in the world by security experts.
UK authorities are monitoring the development of this database because they are worried about it.
You should be worried too. Even if we ourselves are doing what we can to protect us from identity theft there is always a chance that third party providers can expose us to cyber criminals instead.
How do you feel about this alarming information about credit card fraud? Feel free to leave us a comment below
Source: Smarthouse
No related posts.
Comparison of our Top Credit Card Offers
| Interest Rate (p.a.) | Balance Transfer Rate (p.a.) | Annual Fee | Cash Advance Rate (p.a.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citibank Clear Platinum Card | A low interest rate offer on balance transfers and purchases | 11.99% | 2.9% for 12 months | $99 | 21.74% |   |
St George Vertigo | An introductory offer on balance transfer and a low annual fee | 13.24% | 0.99% for 12 months | $55 | 21.49% | |
Virgin Flyer Credit Card | Earn 1 velocity point per $1 spent, plus an introductory offer on balance transfers | 20.99% | 1.9% for 9 months | $99 | 20.99% | |
Westpac 55 Day Credit Card | No annul fee for the first year with a low rate on balance transfers and purchases | 0% for 5 months (reverts to 19.59% ) | 3.99% for 6 months | $0 | 21.49% | |
ANZ Frequent Flyer | An exclusive bonus points offer, Plus extended warranty, overseas travel and medical insurance,90 day purchase security insurance. | 19.74% | $95 | 20.99% | |
Add a Comment