What Are Carding Forums?

Carding forums permit fraudsters to discuss the details of the illicit trade of credit card and debit card cards. These sites are used for buying and selling data that was unlawfully obtained. Forums are also utilized to post advertisements, which were obtained from unlawfully obtained cards, for exchange. From an anonymity standpoint, most carding forums are available to access the deep and dark web.

These websites are often used to purchase dumps (the fraudster’s term for magnetic strip raw data of credit cards) and PINs (personal identification numbers). In carding forums, Fullz is the name of slang for “full information,” and criminals who steal credit card information use the full information package containing an individual’s real name, address, and calling card. Criminals can often get this information through fraudulent purchases, hacking, and other illegal means.

Why Are So Many Carding Forums Disappearing Lately?

Carding forums have been disappearing due to efforts to shield themselves from detection. In January 2022, four of Russia’s largest carding forums were taken offline: Sky-Fraud forum, Trump Dumps, UAS Store, and Ferum Shop, which houses the top carding marketplace. At the time of the shutdown, the sites had a combined $263 million in crypto sales.

Between January 12th, 2022, and February 9th, 2022, several major carding sites, including the top five by Bitcoin revenue, were either seized or disappeared. Some companies, such as C2Bit and All World Cards, shut down and lost many customers’ money after likely being spooked by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB’s) promotion of large-scale credit carding crimes. Another prominent outlet called Brian’s Club disappeared suddenly but, shortly after that, returned. The Russian FSB allegedly seized 90 lesser-known exchange venues in March. This has been the major factor in the disappearing carding forums.

What Are the Largest Active Carding Forums Remaining Right Now?

One of the remaining most prominent dark-web carding forums is BidenCash. BidenCash, a thriving dark web marketplace, released the private transactions of more than 1.2 million credit card records. The information available on the posted site includes data for 1,221,551 credit cards expiring between 2023 and 2026, in addition to other details needed to safely make online transactions, including victim names, names of the financial institutions holding the accounts, social security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. The information was also published on other sites targeted by hackers and carders.

The majority of stolen credit cards in the United States originate on dark web sites involving the trade of stolen credit card numbers. Credit card fraud is a market for business conducted on dark websites that have been set up for credit card theft, allowing criminals to successfully exploit and purchase credit card numbers. BidenCash has been in business since June 2022, when it leaked the personal information of thousands of credit card holders as a pretext for promoting the site.

What Do You Pay Per Card as A Buyer, And What Does the Price Depend On?

Credit cards can be purchased in person or online on carding sites based on the seller’s preferences. The average pricing is $17.36 for a credit card number, CVV, expiration date, cardholder name, and address. The price varies based on the information stolen.

If illegal use of the credit card is found or if the card is canceled by its bank, the price usually drops significantly. Some forums have minimum purchase requirements; if you can’t pay enough in Bitcoins, you have to wait until you can afford to. Carding forums are also different in their payment methods and exchange methods.

What are the top 5 ways how hackers get to your credit card?

• Phishing: The most common reasons for credit card data loss are phishing emails. These emails may try to trick you into clicking on a link that will take you to a familiar, fraudulent website to enter your account details.
• Malware: When you download or open a file from an email or website, malware can enter your computer that aims to steal your card data and other information. Some of the most common malware programs wait on your PC unnoticed. However, as soon as you enter credit card information on a website, they log the data transferred to the website and send it to the hacker.
• Public WiFi networks: Public Internet networks in hotels, cafes, or other public places can easily put you at risk if you enter your account information or open sensitive documents and someone is monitoring the network. You may connect to a rogue hotspot, or a hacker may intercept your data through a man-in-the-middle attack.
• Data breaches: Any organization, website, or application may have vulnerabilities that are exploited by hackers. These vulnerabilities lead to data breaches that put your credit card information and other personal data at risk. The more often you store your credit card on websites, the more likely it is that one of these websites will be hacked in the future and the credit card will show up on a carding forum on the Darknet.
• Physical security issues: your trash can be a treasure trove when it comes to finding credit card and account numbers, or figuring out which organizations you use for your savings accounts. But someone could also use what’s called “shoulder surfing” (a popular social engineering technique) to spy on your card information as you type it in. And last but not least, you put your card in the hands of many people when you shop, dine out, or engage in some other activity. Unfortunately, not everyone is trustworthy.

How Can You Determine If Your Credit Card Is Affected?

Once you download your bank statements to check activity, watch out for suspicious information, such as purchases you did not make or ATM withdrawals that look abnormal. Pay particular attention to very small, regular debits that appear under seemingly harmless service names. It is a common scam of cyber criminals to disguise debits in this way.  If you see something fishy, contact the bank right away.

Can This Be Monitored?

There are ways to monitor fraud and eliminate it from occurring in the first place. The most common prevention method involves monitoring your credit card activity using a tool like Kaduu.

Conclusion

In conclusion, carding forums in the darknet are important to the cybercrime world. Cybercriminals find these preferable forum tools for spreading stolen credit card information quickly, organized, and efficiently. Carding forums are both a supply and a demand for criminal activity. They offer knowledge and information for hacking equipment, facilitating criminal acts, and low-cost, high-quality product or service listings. Criminals use carding forums to find stolen credit card data, sell illicit products and services, and communicate with each other.