Russian websites sell on the stolen personal details of thousands of credit card holders in the UK for around £19, new research recently revealed.
Criminals are snapping up online banking passwords and credit and debit card information through this trade in personal details from rogue websites. The unscrupulous criminals steal the details using devices they attach to cashpoints or by scamming personal or business bank account customers online for PINs and card numbers from unsuspecting customers, such as the recent Tesco Bank attempt.
These foreign websites are a major contributor to the card fraud that occurs in the UK every year, which costs banks and customers a collective £308 million. Banks usually refund any victims of scams, yet the costs absorbed by banking institutions are then spread throughout the entirety of their customer base through charges for ancillary services and higher banking fees.
Cifas’ Richard Hurley, a spokesman for the UK anti-fraud organisation, remarked that it’s a poorly kept secret that banks regain the millions of pounds lost to fraud directly from their customers. While banks are bound by law to provide compensation to victims of fraud, their shareholders must also be answered to, and Mr Hurley said that financial services providers will regain as much money as they can by raising rates and fees on their products.
The Metropolitan Police says the average cost for a set of stolen firms is approximately £120, and that criminals accomplish the identity theft in a myriad of ways, most commonly employing a keylogger, which is a virus that will keep track of your keystrokes as you type in your passwords and then transmit the information to the criminal.