Database Of Stolen Credit Cards

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the check-here,-please dept

Now, I’m sure that folks at CardCops are trying to provide a useful service, but it still seems a little sketchy. They’re apparently releasing a huge database of stolen credit card numbers that they’ve built up by scanning the various chat rooms where card thieves test numbers. They’re saying consumers can go to this database and “test” their cards to see if they’ve been compromised. Am I the only one who’s first reaction was that this would be a great scam for them to actually be collecting tons of valid credit card numbers? Or, even if the site itself is legit, if I were a hacker/credit card thief, wouldn’t this be the perfect site to hack? You could get a database of all the stolen credit cards out there, while also setting up a system to record each new number that gets “tested”. They say that people testing their cards don’t need to reveal the expiration date – but that’s a pretty weak method of making people feel safe. Once you have the number, it doesn’t take that many guesses to figure out the expiration date. I’m all for making people aware that their cards were stolen, but it’s unclear that this system will actually get much use for legitimate purposes.