Friday, March 6
How to hack credit cards. (I post this about once a year or so.)
I just got the following voice mail message:
"Hello, this message is from the Card Services Security Department in regard to possible suspicious activity on your account. As a benefit, we monitor your account for fraudulent activity and need to verify some recent transactions. It is important that we speak to you as soon as possible to ensure continued use of your account. Please return our call to 1-800-383-0618 at your earliest convenience. Thank you for choosing Card Services."
When I called that number, it asked me to enter my 16 digit credit card number, my home phone number, and my birthday.
So if you want to hack credit cards, just setup your computer to leave the exact same message -- but with a temporary anonymous phone number you control -- on the answering machines of thousands of people.
When they call you back, give them the same prompts as above. And maybe throw in a question about their social security number as well.
Then capture that info, along with the name on their callerID, and use that info to place false charges against their card and/or to open up new credit accounts.
Banks, are you listening? Do *not* leave messages as above, as you are simply training your customers to become victims of credit card scams.
Do not ever leave a voice mail with a phone number for consumers to call. Instead, ask them to call the number on the back of their Citibank (or whatever) Mastercard (or whatever). That way you will train your customers to only call your actual number as opposed to any random number someone leaves on their answering machine.¶6:09 PM
I just got the following voice mail message:
"Hello, this message is from the Card Services Security Department in regard to possible suspicious activity on your account. As a benefit, we monitor your account for fraudulent activity and need to verify some recent transactions. It is important that we speak to you as soon as possible to ensure continued use of your account. Please return our call to 1-800-383-0618 at your earliest convenience. Thank you for choosing Card Services."
When I called that number, it asked me to enter my 16 digit credit card number, my home phone number, and my birthday.
So if you want to hack credit cards, just setup your computer to leave the exact same message -- but with a temporary anonymous phone number you control -- on the answering machines of thousands of people.
When they call you back, give them the same prompts as above. And maybe throw in a question about their social security number as well.
Then capture that info, along with the name on their callerID, and use that info to place false charges against their card and/or to open up new credit accounts.
Banks, are you listening? Do *not* leave messages as above, as you are simply training your customers to become victims of credit card scams.
Do not ever leave a voice mail with a phone number for consumers to call. Instead, ask them to call the number on the back of their Citibank (or whatever) Mastercard (or whatever). That way you will train your customers to only call your actual number as opposed to any random number someone leaves on their answering machine.¶6:09 PM
