Fraud Examined: DUMPS

What are DUMPS?

Think of dumps as the evil twins of your credit cards. They start as the juicy bits of data stored on your card's magstripe. Yes, you never really notice that black strip on the back until it stops working at the grocery store.

Put that information on a new card via printing and embossing, make the new card look real, and then begin using the card.

DUMPS examples:

1. The Double Swipe Move: Have you ever handed your card to someone and wondered what happens behind the scenes? In this scam, your friendly neighborhood waiter or the fast-food guy could be swiping your card twice—once for your meal and once through a sneaky device called an MSR X6 (sounds like a spy gadget, right?). This gadget copies all your card details faster than you can say "extra fries, please."

2. The DIY Card Factory: Next, these scammers take "dumps" of your card data and load them onto blank cards. But they don’t stop there. They go full Picasso on these blanks—printing, embossing numbers, and even creating matching fake IDs. Because walking into a store with a plain blank card is a one-way ticket to Handcuffsville.

3. Vending Machine Vendetta: Ever wondered why your chip card struggles at certain vending machines? Some of these might be rigged with skimmers by scammers who've bought the machines just to steal your data. Yes, even that harmless-looking machine begging you for some coin in exchange for a soda is not above suspicion!

Every criminal says the sniff test is one of the best ways to prevent revenue loss. When something seems off, it probably is.

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