Crooks offer Black Friday deals on stolen credit cards

CRIMINALS are capitalising on Black Friday by offering online deals of their own, with thousands of sets of stolen credit card details available at discounted prices.

Recent analysis of the dark web – a network of hidden websites and untraceable online activity – found more than 1,400 posts on underground marketplaces that mentioned Black Friday and the similar sales event that takes place tomorrow, Cyber Monday.

Cybercrime experts at GCHQ warned shoppers they were ‘prime pickings’ for fraudsters.

Research by internet security firm RepKnight found one crook offering card details on the dark web at a 25 per cent discount. Thousands of stolen sets of details were available for just a few hundred pounds.

Another fraudster was offering to transfer money obtained by using stolen credit cards to PayPal accounts for a special price of £4, while one crook called nabil999 even wrote a guide explaining how to take advantage of shoppers during the busy weekend of online shopping by luring them to websites that would then plunder their bank accounts.

Patrick Martin, cybersecurity analyst at RepKnight, said hackers were taking advantage of the ‘extra cover’ provided by the huge volumes of web traffic over the busy sales weekend.

He added: ‘Retailers need to take precautions in order to minimise the risk of their corporate and customer data ending up for sale on the dark web as part of an unwanted Black Friday deal. Vigilance is very much the watchword.’