{"id":997045,"date":"2020-08-06T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geetests.com\/article\/carding-damages-your-business-and-cardholders"},"modified":"2025-09-15T14:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:20:33","slug":"carding-damages-your-business-and-cardholders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/en\/article\/carding-damages-your-business-and-cardholders","title":{"rendered":"How Carding Hurts Your Business and Not Only Cardholders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"vgblk-rw-wrapper limit-wrapper\"><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Carding attacks are one of the most dangerous forms of bot attacks since they directly deal with personal finance. If your website was involved in a successful carding attack loss of your reputation and revenue is inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">A hacker group named <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.csoonline.com\/article\/3400381\/what-is-magecart-how-this-hacker-group-steals-payment-card-data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Magecart<\/a> <span style=\"color: #0e101a; background-color: transparent;\">established their presence in the cybercrime industry and became very popular for their carding and <\/span><a style=\"color: #0047b2; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.csoonline.com\/article\/3191947\/what-is-a-supply-chain-attack-why-you-should-be-wary-of-third-party-providers.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">supply chain attacks<\/a><span style=\"color: #0e101a; background-color: transparent;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0e101a; background-color: transparent;\">So, what is carding? How does it hurt your business and not only cardholders? How do you prevent it on your website or application?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ql-align-center\"><strong style=\"color: #0e101a; background-color: transparent;\">What Is Carding?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Definition<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Carding is a type of bot attack that involves multiple simultaneous requests to grant access to a stolen credit card and make transactions through it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">How Carding Works<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0Carding attack operation is very sophisticated by nature and requires a lot of resources and efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">1. Obtaining a large number of partially incomplete credit card credentials;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">2. Deploying bots to make small purchases across multiple websites to determine the remaining credentials and validate credit cards;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">3. Bots handle millions of attempts to validate cards;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">4. Successfully validated card credentials are put into a database for further criminal use.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">How Do Criminals Get Card Information? <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">There are countless ways to get your card information and start a fraud scheme. Fraudsters are extremely creative when it comes to that, but here are the most popular ones that you should be aware of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Skimming<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Skimming is an operation when fraudsters place a small and very hard to notice device on a legitimate card reader, for example, <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebalance.com\/what-is-atm-skimming-1947475\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ATM<\/a>. <span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0This device is called a skimmer. As soon as the cardholder starts using ATM, the skimmer reads the card information and passes it to fraudsters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Web scripts can also be used as skimmers. They were one of Magecart&#8217;s popular weapons. Malicious code is injected into e-commerce platforms, so when you make a purchase, the script reads card credentials and sends them to fraudsters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Fraudulent phone calls<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Phone calls are a very notorious way of accessing card information. Recently it has become very popular among criminals to call and introduce themselves as bank staff. They claim that an emergency such as an unauthorized transaction is happening with your card and requires your information to take action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Phishing \/ Spear-phishing<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Phishing is very similar to phone calls, aside from the fact that fraudsters try to get card information through emails, text messages, and social media direct messages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Malware<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Malicious software installed from spam<\/span> <a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0047b2;\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.geetest.com\/en\/article\/spam-bots-and-comment-spam-explained-how-to-keep-your-seo-and-credibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">links<\/a><span style=\"background-color: transparent;\"> in<\/span> <span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">email or messages and comments on social media. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">When the installation is finished, it runs in the background while users make purchases on the net. Malware reads card information and stores it in a database for fraudulent use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Carding forums<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Carding forums are the cradle of knowledge for criminals. They share various tips, tricks, and tools to collect card information. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Information leakage <\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Banks can leak their client&#8217;s info or even sell it sometimes. Not on purpose, of course, the reason for it is usually the poor access management system or employees with ill intentions who want to make a profit from the personal data of bank clients.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ql-align-center\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">How Carding Hurts Your Business<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/geetests.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/162030545-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">1. The damage inflicted on card owners causes a severe reputation loss and public relations crisis;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">2. Online platforms are subjected to chargebacks. This influences the reputation among credit card processors by creating a poor history and penalties for using a stolen card;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">3. Decrease in revenue and risk for the long-term sustainability of business due to everything mentioned above;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ql-align-center\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">How to Prevent Carding<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">2- Factor Authentication (2FA)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">To prevent losing the card credentials of your clients to fraudsters, 2FA will be a strong solution since it authorizes access to credit cards based on <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.geetest.com\/en\/article\/captcha-vs-2fa-can-2fa-replace-captcha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three general pieces of evidence<\/a> t<span style=\"background-color: transparent;\">hat only a particular cardholder possesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Address Verification System (AVS)<\/strong><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">AVS is used to verify the address of a cardholder. The system checks the user&#8217;s billing address and compares it with an address provided in the credit card company&#8217;s file. If the addresses are similar, AVS authorizes the access.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Card Verification Vallue (CVV code)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">CVV code confirms that the user has physical possession of the card since CVV is only present on the physical card. However, it is important to know that CVV could be stolen as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Velocity Check\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Velocity check analyzes numerous data, such as IP address, device ID, card number, or payment system. It also checks how many purchases were made using this card for the past 24 hours. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">If the purchases are too frequent, say minutes away from each other, they are regarded as suspicious.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Payer Authentication<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Payer Authentication is a phone call from a card issuer to confirm the translation. Banks are doing it if the transactions seem suspicious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Fingerprint Verification\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Device fingerprinting is one of the forms of multi-factor authorization that helps identify device parameters that do not alter between purchases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Fingerprinting creates a unique presence identifier, and if it shows up on multiple log-ins, it arouses suspicions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Stop the Automation with <\/strong><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0047b2;\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.geetest.com\/en\/article\/advanced-captcha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Advanced Human Verification<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Fraudsters possess millions of credit card credentials and have to test these on multiple sites across the web. An impossible task without the help of automation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">If the automation can be stopped, then the carding attacks can&#8217;t be initiated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Traditional picture and text-based CAPTCHAs have been the go-to choice for preventing automation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">At present, however, traditional captchas are obsolete against sophisticated carding bots. Because they use machine learning to crack these challenges or utilizes sweatshops (a.k.a <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0047b2;\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.geetest.com\/en\/article\/captcha-solving\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">captcha farms<\/a><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">) to bypass them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">How to prevent malicious automation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Advanced systems with behavioral and environmental analysis can reduce malicious automation to manageable degrees. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">However, the major differentiating factor here is at what cost?. The cost of customer experience is just as important as the ability to keep malicious automation at manageable levels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\"><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0047b2;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geetest.com\/en?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3Nv3BRC8ARIsAPh8hgKb7Lpbbx89lG9kZZvsQ2AQ8_uNaIGNF6ctpyjf7orJg9avL-qaDoUaAjFiEALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong><em>Learn more about the utmost security with minimal user friction<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\">\n<h2 class=\"ql-align-center\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Preventing carding fraud is essential for the long-term success and competitiveness of your business. Reputation and revenue are the main pillars that businesses grow on; therefore, you must protect them at all costs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Why? If you don&#8217;t use the necessary safety precautions, there is a risk that your business will not survive. The stigma of a fraudsters-friendly website will destroy it quickly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">Choosing security measures is not an easy but a necessary move. Of course, you could make a combo of several solutions mentioned above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">However, do not forget about the user experience. Users don&#8217;t like endless challenges. They will increase your bounce rate and reduce the competitiveness of your business.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\">The best option for you is the solution with the least user friction and maximum security, and we just happened to have <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0047b2;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geetest.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one<\/a><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #0e101a;\"> for you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/geetests.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lark20200622-154037-3.gif\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .vgblk-rw-wrapper --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carding attacks hurt cardholders. But they also hurt your business too. How? Read and find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":996101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-997045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-botpedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997660,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997045\/revisions\/997660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/996101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}