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Although the number of stolen credit cards for sale on the dark Web remained steady at around 45 million throughout 2020, some surprising trends emerged when it came to the type of cards for sale and the markets where they originated, says a new report from cybersecurity firm Sixgill.
One such trend is that cards with CVV numbers represented just 21% of the total cards available in the second half of the year, down from 62% during the first half. Typically, cards with CVV numbers represent of about 60% of total cards.
The dramatic drop in cards with CVV numbers is puzzling, the report says, especially since e-commerce purchases—which require consumers to enter a CVV number when filling out their payment information at checkout—have rocketed during the pandemic. One encouraging explanation is that e-commerce retailers have become increasingly successful in preventing fraudulent purchases, the report says.
While fewer cards with CVV numbers were available, cards with data from dumps, which are used to create counterfeit cards that can be used in-store and contain Track 1 and Track 2 data from a card’s magnetic stripe, accounted for 79% of the cards on the dark Web in the second half of the year, compared to 38% during the first half. One possible explanation for the increase is that criminals were emboldened to use counterfeit cards in-store as lockdowns eased during the second half of 2020 and online merchants become more vigilant about fraud prevention.
Another surprise is that American Express cards represented 38% of available cards in the second half, up from just 6% during the first half. By comparison, Visa cards accounted for 36% of the market, Mastercard 23%, and Discover 3%. In the first half of 2020, the share of card brands on the dark Web more closely resembled each card network’s market share.
One explanation is that American Express cardholders tend to be more affluent, spend more, and use their cards more often, making them attractive targets for card theft. Indeed, online spending by these cardholders grew by more than 20% in 2020, according to the report.
Finally, cards issued in the United States represented about 82% of total cards for sale during the second half of 2020, up from 49% in the first half. The continued use of magnetic stripes on U.S. cards is seen as the primary culprit for the spike. From July 2019 to June 2020, about 68% of card transactions in the U.S. were made using an EMV chip, compared to 98% in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and 83% globally, according to the Sixgill report.
