| ===== Phrack Magazine presents Phrack 15 ===== |
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| ===== File 4 of 8 ===== |
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| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| ~ The Disk Jockey ~ |
| ~ ~ |
| ~ presents: ~ |
| ~ ~ |
| ~ Advanced Carding XIV: ~ |
| ~ Clarification of Many Credit Card Misconceptions ~ |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| (A 2af Presentation) |
| Preface: |
| ------- |
| After reading files that have been put out by various groups and |
| individuals concerning carding, credit fraud, and the credit system in |
| general, I am finding more and more that people are basing these files on |
| ideas, rather than knowing how the system actually works. In this article I |
| hope to enlighten you on some of the grey areas that I find most people either |
| do not clarify, or don't know what they are talking about. I can safely say |
| that this will be the most accurate file available dealing with credit fraud. |
| I have worked for and against credit companies, and know how they work from |
| the insiders point of view, and I have yet to meet someone in the modem world |
| that knows it better. |
|
|
| This file is dedicated to all the phreaks/hacks that were busted for various |
| reasons in the summer of 1987. |
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|
|
| Obtaining Cards: |
| --------------- |
| Despite popular belief, there IS a formula for Visa and Mastercard |
| numbers. All credit card account numbers are issued by on issuing company, in |
| this case, Visa or Mastercard. Although the banks are not aware of any type |
| of pattern to the account numbers, there IS one that can be found. I plan to |
| publish programs in the near future that will use the various formulas for |
| Visa, Mastercard and American Express to create valid accounts. |
|
|
| Accounts: |
| -------- |
| All that is needed to successfully use a Visa/MC account is the account |
| number itself. I don't know how many times I have gotten into arguments with |
| people over this, but this is the way it is. I'll expand on this. |
|
|
| First of all, on all Visa/MC cards, the name means NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. |
| You do not need this name and address of the cardholder to successfully use |
| the account, at no time during authorization is the name ever needed, and with |
| over 50,000 banks, credit unions, and various other financial institutions |
| issuing credit cards, and only 5 major credit verification services, it is |
| impossible to keep personal data on each cardholder. |
|
|
| Ordering something and having it sent with the real cardholder's name is only |
| going to make things more difficult, at best. There is no way that you can |
| tell if the card is a normal card, or a premium (gold) card merely by looking |
| at the account number. The only thing that can be told by the account number |
| is the bank that issued the card, but this again, is not needed. |
|
|
| The expiration date means nothing. Don't believe me? Call up an |
| authorization number and check a card and substitute 12/94, and if the account |
| number is good, the card will pass. The expiration date is only a binary-type |
| check to see if the card is good, (Yes/No), it is NOT a checksum-type check |
| code that has to be matched up to the card account to be valid. |
|
|
| Carding Stupid Things: |
| --------------------- |
| Whenever anyone, ANYONE tries to card something for the first time, they |
| ALWAYS want to get something for their computer. This is nice and all, but |
| just think that every person that has ever tried to card has tried to get a |
| hard drive and a new modem. Everyone does it, thus every single computer |
| company out there is aware and watching for that. If I could give every |
| single person who ever tries to card one piece of advice, it would be to NEVER |
| order computer equipment. I know there are a hundred guys that will argue |
| with me about it, but common sense should tell you that the merchants are |
| going to go out of there way to check these cards. |
|
|
| Merchant Checking: |
| ----------------- |
| Since I brought up merchants checking the cards, I will review the two |
| basic ways that almost all mail-order merchants use. Keep these in mind when |
| designing your name, address and phone number for your drop. |
|
|
| The Directory Assistance Cross-Reference: |
| ---------------------------------------- |
| This method is most popular because it is cheap, yet effective. You can |
| usually tell these types of checks because during the actual order, you are |
| asked questions such as "What is your HOME telephone number" and your billing |
| address. Once they have this information, they can call directory assistance |
| for your area code, say 312, and ask "May I have the phone number for a Larry |
| Jerutis at 342 Stonegate Drive?" Of course, the operator should give a number |
| that matches up with the one that you gave them as your home number. If it |
| doesn't, the merchant knows that something is up. Even if it is an unlisted |
| number, the operator will say that there is a Jerutis at that address, but the |
| telephone number is non-published, which is enough to satisfy the merchant. |
| If a problem is encountered, the order goes to a special pile that is actually |
| called and the merchant will talk to the customer directly. Many merchants |
| have policy to not ship at all if the customer can not provide a home phone |
| number that corresponds with the address. |
|
|
| The Call Back: |
| ------------- |
| This deals with the merchant calling you back to verify the order. This |
| does not imply, however, that you can stand by a payphone and wait for them to |
| call back. Waiting by a payphone is one of the stupidest things I have ever |
| heard of, being that few, if any, places other than the pizza place will call |
| back immediately like that. What most places will do is process your order, |
| etc, and then call you, sometimes it's the next day, sometimes that night. It |
| is too difficult to predict when they will call back, but if they don't get a |
| hold of you, or only get a busy, or an answering machine, they won't send the |
| merchandise until they speak with you voice. This method is difficult to |
| defeat, but fortunately, due to the high cost of phone bills, the directory |
| assistance method is preferred. |
|
|
| Billing Address: |
| --------------- |
| This should ALWAYS be the address that you are having the stuff sent to. |
| One of the most stupidest things that you could do to botch up a carding job |
| would be to say something like "Well, I don't want it sent to my house, I want |
| it sent to....", or "Well, this is my wife's card, and her name is....". |
| These methods may work, but for the most part, only rouse suspicion on you. |
| If the order sounds pretty straightforward, and there isn't any unusual |
| situations, it will better the chances of the order going through. |
|
|
| Drop Houses: |
| ----------- |
| These are getting harder and harder to come by for the reasons that |
| people are more careful then before, and that UPS is smarter, also. Your best |
| bet is to hit somebody that just moved, and I mean JUST moved, being that UPS |
| will not know that there is nobody at the house anymore if it is within, say, |
| a week of their moving. It's getting to the point where in some areas, UPS |
| won't even leave the stuff on the doorstep, due to liability on their part of |
| doing that. The old "Leave the stuff in the shrubs while I am at work" note |
| won't work, most people are smart enough to know that something is odd, and |
| will more than likely leave the packages with the neighbors before they shove |
| that hard drive in the bushes. Many places, such as Cincinnati Microwave |
| (maker of the Escort and Passport radar detectors) require a signature when |
| the package is dropped off, making it that much harder. |
|
|
| Best Bet: |
| -------- |
| Here is the method that I use that seems to work well, despite it being a |
| little harder to match up names and phone numbers. Go to an apartment |
| building and go to the top floor. The trashier the place, the better. Knock |
| on the door and ask if "Bill" is there. Of course, or at least hopefully, |
| there will be no Bill at that address. Look surprised, then say "Well, my |
| friend Bill gave me this address as being his." The occupants will again say |
| "Sorry, but there is no Bill here...". Then, say that "I just moved here to |
| go to school, and I had my parents sent me a bunch of stuff for school here, |
| thinking that this was Bill's place." They almost always say "Oh Boy...". |
| Then respond with "Well, if something comes, could you hold on to it for me, |
| and I will come by in a week and see if anything came?" They will always say |
| something to the effect of "Sure, I guess we could do that...". Thank them a |
| million times for helping you out, then leave. A few days after your stuff |
| comes, drop by and say, "Hi, I'm Jim, did anything come for me?". If |
| everything was cool, it should have. The best thing to do with this is only |
| order one or two small things, rather than an AT system with an extra monitor. |
| People feel more comfortable about signing for something small for someone, |
| rather than something big, being that most people naturally think that the |
| bigger it is, the more expensive it is. |
| This is the best method that I know of, the apartment occupants will |
| usually sign for the stuff, and be more than happy to help you out. |
|
|
| Advice: |
| ------ |
| The thing that I can never stress enough is to not become greedy. Sure, |
| the first shipment may come in so easy, so risk-free that you feel as if you |
| can do it forever. Well, you can't. Eventually, if you do it frequently |
| enough, you will become the subject of a major investigation by the local |
| authorities if this becomes a real habit. Despite anything that anyone ever |
| tells you about the police being "stupid and ignorant", you better reconsider. |
| The police force is a VERY efficient organization once they have an idea as to |
| who is committing these crimes. They have the time and the money to catch |
| you. |
|
|
| Don't do it with friends. Don't even TELL friends that you are doing it. This |
| is the most stupid, dangerous thing that you could do. First of all, I don't |
| care how good of friends anyone may be, but if a time came that you hated each |
| other, this incident could be very bad for you. What could be even worse is a |
| most common scenario: You and a friend get a bunch of stuff, very |
| successfully. You tell a few friends at school, either you or him have to |
| tell only one person and it gets all over. Anyways, there is ALWAYS some type |
| of informant in every high-school. Be it a teacher, son or daughter of a cop, |
| or whatever, there is always a leak in every high school. The police decide |
| to investigate, and find that it is becoming common knowledge that you and/or |
| your friend have ways of getting stuff for "free" via the computer. Upon |
| investigation, they call in your friend, and tell him that they have enough |
| evidence to put out a warrant for his arrest, and that they might be able to |
| make a deal with him. If he gives a complete confession, and be willing to |
| testify against your in court, they will let him off with only paying the |
| restitution (paying for the stuff you got). Of course, just about anyone is |
| going to think about themselves, which is understandable, and you will get the |
| raw end of the deal. Don't let anyone ever tell you that as a minor, you |
| won't get in any trouble, because you can and will. If you are really |
| uncooperative, they may have you tried as an adult, which would really put you |
| up the creek, and even as a juvenile, you are eligible to receive probation, |
| fines, court costs, and just about anything else the judge wants to do with |
| you. All this boils down to is to not tell anyone anything, and try not to do |
| it with anyone. |
|
|
|
|
| Well, that should about wrap up this file. I hope this clears up some |
| misconceptions about carding. I am on many boards, and am always open to any |
| comments/suggestions/threats that anyone might have. I can always be reached |
| on The Free World II (301-668-7657) or Lunatic Labs (415-278-7421). |
|
|
| Good luck. |
|
|
| -The Disk Jockey |
|
|
