"$38 Million Worth of Gift Cards Stolen And Sold on Dark Web"

Researchers at a fraud intelligence firm called Gemini Avirsory found that a cybercriminal has sold almost 900,000 gift cards and over 300,000 payment cards on a top-tier cybercrime forum on the dark web. The total value of the cards was claimed to be around $38 million. According to the researchers, the stolen cards originated from a 2019 breach of an online discount gift card marketplace that has since gone offline. Since they’re easy to redeem and tough to track, gift cards are an increasingly popular target for fraud.  One of the researchers observed offers to sell the cards in bulk on the Russian-language forum in February 2021. While the actor behind the sale didn’t reveal how they obtained the cards or what their origins were, they did disclose that the loot contained more than 3,000 brand-name gift cards from as many companies, including Airbnb, Amazon, Nike, Marriott, Walmart, and others. The threat actors set up an auction with the bidding starting at US$10,000 and a buy now price of double the initial bidding price. The database was sold within a few moments of being posted.  A mere day after selling the gift cards, the same cybercriminal offered to sell 330,000 payment and debit cards on the same online hacking forum. According to the posting, the information included the victims’ billing address and partial payment card data such as the card number, its expiration date, and the issuing bank’s name. However, the Card Verification Value (CVV) and the cardholder’s name were not included.

We Live Security reports: "$38 Million Worth of Gift Cards Stolen And Sold on Dark Web"