Blank Credit Card Authorization: Fill & Download for Free

Very recently, a fraudulent activity at SBI IIT Kharagpur branch surfaced before me. I got a call from an employee asking me to collect a new highly secured Debit card which they were issuing only to so-called "premium customers". I smelled something fishy as SBI issued EVM chip secured debit cards just 3 months back. I visited the branch on 06th April (Saturday) afternoon. Three agents cornered me and started speaking highly about the new card. When I asked them to hand it over to me, they said that they'll despatch it to the mentioned address through courier service only after cross-verifying all the information and a lady started taking note of my details in a separate diary. Just then a man brought a form, kept his palm on the description and asked me to sign in the box he was pointing at, all this while the other lady kept me preoccupied/distracted with getting my details furnished.I didn't sign and when I turned the piece of paper, I realized they were actually trying to sell me out a credit card. The blanks in the form asked for the exact same information which that lady was inquiring into. Probably, they would have filled it by themselves after getting my signatures. There were annual maintenance charges mentioned with lots of strict terms and conditions imposed. I caught them red-handed, threatened them to escalate the issue and left. I am pretty sure they have already tricked few innocent students into this, who do not even realise they are using a credit card and have already fallen prey to this vicious cycle of taking money on credit (and their parents do not even know about all this). This is likely to continue without an iota of shame until the administration intervenes and takes up the issue to competent authorities.

Yes, although they generally have to complete multiple crimes before they are even noticed.I read a book written by one such fraudster (I just looked over my bookshelf to find the title, but I can’t locate it right now). He used several methods to steal. The largest gains came from first purchasing lists of credit card numbers that had been retrieved through penetration of various online merchants’ websites. Most of these came from Russians or Ukrainians, who would then offer the number lists online via the Dark Web.At first, he would order merchandise online and have it delivered to addresses he knew to be vacant. Later on, he bought the machines necessary to emboss and code the magnetic strips onto counterfeit credit cards. He would have the credit card blanks made up by Chinese vendors, and would ship him several hundred blanks at a time. He mentioned that all of the hardware and consumables to go into production of counterfeit credit cards cost him about $15,000. He could easily recover this cost on his first day in the field, and everything that came after was pure profit.He employed several crews of “shoppers.” Most would be girls in the late teens or early twenties who had no criminal records. He screened them for their attractiveness, but also for looking like the typical wealthy customer of merchants like Nordstrom’s and Burberry. Each would be given several credit cards and at least one piece of counterfeit identification matching the name on the cards, but having the shopper’s photo. He would take the crew to high-end shopping malls where they were directed to make purchases of expensive luxury goods. As he sold the goods online (sometimes via eBay), he knew what merchandise was in demand. The fake shoppers were also allowed to buy a few things for themselves, so long as they came back with the merchandise he wanted.It was important to put the fake credit cards to use as quickly as possible, so that the accounts they corresponded to would still be “alive.” Occasionally, they would find that a credit card number had been reported stolen or lost. When that happened, the shopper would feign ignorance and offer another counterfeit card.Within a few hours, the shoppers and the counterfeiter would be back in the minivan, the back loaded with thousands of dollars’ worth of luxury goods that would be sold on eBay or Craigslist. The counterfeiter would seldom make any purchases himself, so as to have deniability if the police were called on one of the shoppers.When the charges were reported as fraudulent, the merchant would suffer a chargeback. They were often able to put the loss off to the credit card issuer, as the merchant had done the due diligence the issuer required. Over a span of a few years, the counterfeiter took the credit card issuers for millions of dollars.The author of the book was caught, eventually. Actually, he was caught several times, as he kept going back to his old “profession.” He never got much jail or prison time, as this was a crime with unsympathetic victims. Had he done this only a few times, he probably wouldn’t have been identified or charged at all.The addition of EMV (the term comes from “Eurocard, MasterCard, and Visa," the three companies that pioneered the use of the chips) chips to most credit cards makes counterfeiting more difficult.The EMV chips create a unique payment code for each transaction. It’s probably a matter of time before EMV chips are also compromised, but developments like this make it considerably more difficult to practice “carding.” Without considerable technical knowledge and the hardware to counterfeit the EMV chips, the garden-variety “carder” is dealt out of the game.

In short, credit and debit card fraud is the use of a card “to buy goods or services with the intention of evading payment,” according to Experian. Different kinds of credit fraud abound, including fraud sprees, identity assumption and identity theft.A fraud spree happens when a thief steals your information and uses it to make unauthorized charges on your card. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your credit card numbers and personal identification information to commit credit fraud or other crimes. And identity assumption is a fraud scam that happens when a criminal uses your stolen information on a long-term basis to victimize you.How to Prevent Credit Card FraudCredit card fraud detection can help you limit your risk of credit and debit card fraud. Take every step you can to avoid being victimized, because not only can fraud affect your credit, it can be a real mess to clean up.To help minimize your risk of fraud, use these tips:Never give your credit card or debit card account number to anyone over the phone unless you know the company with which you’re dealing.Make sure you get your card back after you make a credit card transaction.Don’t leave any blank space above the total on your card receipt. Instead, draw a line through it. That way, no one can fill in an extra amount.How to Know if You’ve Become a Victim of Credit Card FraudYou can discover in a few different ways whether you’ve been the victim of a compromised account. Pay attention to these four clues to avoid ongoing fraud:Your credit report shows inquiries or information on accounts you didn’t open.Unfamiliar charges appear on your billing statements.You receive bills from unknown sources.You receive calls from creditors.What to Do If You’re a Victim of Credit Card FraudAlert your credit card companies first. You will typically need to provide your credit card and Social Security number as well as your login information for the credit card site. In addition, you might have to sign a statement under oath that you did not make the charges.Contact the credit bureaus. Report fraud to one of the credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax or TransUnion — so it can put a credit fraud alert on your account. Once you report credit card fraud to one credit bureau, it must share that information with the others. Follow up with the others to make sure it happened.File a police report. You should report any kind of identity theft — including credit card fraud to police — according to the FDIC. In addition, a police report can provide documentation to send to your credit card issuer.File an FTC complaint. Again, because credit card fraud is a type of identity theft, you should report it to the FTC. You’ll need to provide the name of the card issuer, the date you noticed the fraudulent charges, the amount of the charges, your account number and any information about the company that authorized it.For more information regarding credit card fraud, read the full article HERE.