What Does Your Stolen Identity Data Sell For on the Dark Web?

Your stolen banking information, online streaming credentials, private and financial data is all for sale on the dark net - for pennies on the dollar! Photo: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

Your stolen banking information, online streaming credentials, private and financial data is all for sale on the dark net – for pennies on the dollar! Photo: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

Ever hear of the dark web? How about the deep web? Before your eyes glaze over, you only need to know a few key points to become even more furious at what happens to any of your personal and financial information that is hacked from stores like these, all hacked in 2015: Target, Home Depot, Chick-fil-a, Sony, US Postal Service, Staples, K-Mart, Dairy Queen, and of course, Ashley Madison.

The dark web is the encrypted network that exists between The Onion Router (Tor) servers and their clients. And the deep web is simply the content of databases and other web services that cannot be indexed by conventional search engines like Google, or Bing, or Alta Visa (just kidding!). Tor lets anybody route web traffic through several other computers in the network so that the person on the other end can’t trace the traffic back to you.

This anonymity leads to a deep and dark world where users can easily buy and sell anything from drugs, counterfeit passports, advanced weapons, porn of every type imaginable, and it’s a relatively safe haven for criminal scumbags who traffic in stolen data from stores like those listed above, plus 1,000’s more.

The pros at McAfee labs just published a report called The Hidden Data Economy and as it sums up nicely, it gives details on a number of interesting insights into the economics that govern stolen data on the dark web.

To put it bluntly, the old adage that anything imaginable is available for the right price, drives this economy of criminality that is open for business with just a few mouse clicks.

Click the laughing guy below to read the report.

hidden data economy

Here’s some information on the going rate for banking login credentials, like those stolen as easily as candy from dozens of stores this year alone. Take special note at not only what this life-altering information costs (very, very cheap!), but the variety of what is available everyday, 24/7.

Average estimated price for stolen credit and debit cards:

  • $5 to $30 in the U.S.
  • $20 to $35 in the United Kingdom
  • $20 to $40 in Canada
  • $21 to $40 in Australia
  • $25 to $45 in the European Union

Bank login credentials for a $2,200 balance bank account? Selling for $190.

Bank login credentials plus stealth funds transfers to U.S. banks? Priced from $500 for a $6,000 account balance, to $1,200 for a $20,000 account balance.

Bank login credentials and stealth funds transfers to U.K. banks? Range from $700 for a $10,000 account balance, to $900 for a $16,000 account balance.

Online payment service login credentials? Between $20 and $50 for account balances from $400 to $1,000; between $200 and $300 for balances from $5,000 to $8,000.

As with most things in the criminal identity theft realm, the price of a stolen credit card number increases with each additional piece of card owner information provided. There’s also a marketplace for your login credentials for a variety of streaming services, including Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Playboy, and of course lots of sports streaming stations.

But these options are just an appetizer for today’s criminal hell bent on wrecking personal and financial ruin on whoever they can afford to destroy, there’s also the option of purchasing full identity theft. According to ZDNet, if someone really wants your info, full credit reports can be purchased for about $25 a pop. In addition, document scans of passports, driver’s licenses and utility bills are sold anywhere from $10 to $35 a piece.

We here at CUFBI scream our motto at least several times a day, so I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know how you too can get on the dark web, if only to see if any of your data is out there and for sale. Here is a quick tutorial from Fast Company.

computer parasites

To get into the Deep Web these days, you have to download the Tor add-on for Firefox. The Tor Browser Bundle from the Tor Project secures your anonymity to browse, which is why Tor is popular all over the world, not just with criminals. Photo: ZDNet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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