News

Study: YouTube a broadcast hub for criminals selling stolen card data

Once YouTube was just a video smorgasbord of cute kittens and stupid human stunts. Now it's also Broadcast Central for crooks with stolen bankcard data to sell.

June 19, 2014

A new investigation by Digital Citizens Alliance has found that rogue operators are selling credit cards, bank logins and social security numbers on YouTube, a news release from the watchdog group said.

The DCA report, “Breach of Trust: How the Online Market for Stolen and Bogus Credit Cards is Eroding Confidence in the Internet,” cites dozens of videos promoting the sale of either stolen or fraudulent credit cards, a news release from the organization said.

According to the report:

Digital Citizens found videos offering credit cards for as little as $4 a card. Just as startling, Digital Citizens found advertisements next to these videos from major corporations. In what has to be an awful irony, Digital Citizens found ads for MasterCard and the Discover Card next to videos hawking stolen credit cards.

In fact, Digital Citizens found a YouTube video offering credit cards for sale accompanied by an ad for the retailing giant Target, the subject of a massive hacking scam that took millions of credit cards from Target’s severs and put them onto the open market. 

Digital Citizens Alliance said it was able to make contact with one dealer who offered to sell hundreds of stolen credit cards, a machine to make counterfeit cards, and a how-to manual on scams.

"The sad takeaway from the report is that YouTube continues to be used by rogue operators to conduct criminal acts, and not only does Google allow it to continue, but they profit from it by selling ads,” said DCA executive director Tom Galvin, Executive Director of Digital Citizens.

“We need Google to start to treat this as an Internet safety issue, and find a more permanent solution, as opposed to treating it as a PR problem and scrubbing the video simply to avoid criticism.”