Tech-savvy criminals are devising new ways to get their hands on card information. They've figured out that card fraud beats holding up someone at gunpoint. Instead, they're hacking into Internet databases filled with customer card data and copying account details encoded on a card's magnetic stripe. Not surprisingly, the Internet is fueling such fraud. It not only helps criminals retrieve account data quickly and efficiently, but it allows them to perpetrate scams from anywhere in the world.
Thieves can E-mail account information overseas to cohorts, who then produce counterfeit cards.
Or items can be purchased from an Internet merchant, allowing the fraudster to cloak his identity and leave few clues to track him down. The astounding growth in electronic-commerce sites provides criminals with a world of merchants to patronize for products that are easily fenced. Without the last number, the card cannot be counterfeited. Last November, for example, a Bloomingdale's shopper in New York paying for sunglasses with a credit card noticed something fishy. The card was swiped twice, once through the store's credit card device and also through a store vendor's Palm organizer, which had a skimming device attached to it.