Shaving

Credit Card Shaving: Scammers Go Low-Tech With Trick

Forget high-tech hacking. One new credit card scam relies more on X-Acto knives and glue sticks than wi-fi and laptops, but helps criminals steal your money just the same.

Shaving is a low-tech form of card theft where thieves sort through sets of 16-digit numbers to find one that matches an existing card, and then verifying that number either by trying to make a purchase online or by phone. The scammers can also buy a list of valid credit card numbers from black market sites online. Once they have their hands on a valid account number, they then create a new card with those numbers by shaving the numbers off of gift cards or expired credit cards and gluing them onto a defunct or stolen card. The magnetic strip is gouged with a knife or pen so that a store clerk has to manually enter the account number on a keypad, and the charge goes through.

If they're successful, months can pass before a cardholder discovers the fraud. After all, if your wallet hasn't been stolen and you haven't misplaced a card, you may be puzzled to discover that your card has been compromised even though it's safely tucked away the entire time.

While it might not be the simplest way to commit an identity theft, card shaving is on the rise. "Desperate times mean desperate measures," said Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and author of "The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert." "In this economy, we are seeing scams of all kinds resurfacing, including credit card shaving."

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More at the link. Forget high-tech hacking. One new credit card scam relies more on X-Acto knives and glue sticks than wi-fi and laptops, but helps crim... more

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