Stolen Uber and PayPal accounts are more coveted that credit cards on the Dark Web
It seems the cyber criminals are now a days preferring stolen Uber, PayPal and even Facebook accounts to the traditional favourite. Every stolen credit card, Uber, PayPal, Medical Insurance and other such personally identifiable information (PII) finds its way to the Dark Web marketplace. And according to Trend Micro, the latest trends suggest that credit cards, which were the old favourite, are losing ground to stolen Uber and PayPal accounts as the new favourites among the buyers and sellers on the underground marketplace, or “the Dark Web.”
According a recent report published on CNBC, stolen Uber account information could be found on underground marketplaces for an average of $3.78 per account, while personally identifiable information, such as Social Security Numbers or dates of birth, ranged from $1 to $3.30 on average – down from $4 per record in 2014.
Furthermore, PayPal accounts – with a guaranteed balance of $500 –were found to have an average selling price of $6.43. Facebook logins sold for an average of $3.02, while Netflix credentials sold for about 76 cents.
The old favourite among cyber criminals, U.S.-issued credit card information, which is sold in bundles, was listed for no more than 22 cents each.
“It’s an incredible underground ecosystem. There is a high level of competition for these criminal buyers and there are a lot of different types of forums. It’s incredibly diverse, but incredibly mature,” said Ed Cabrera, Trend Micro’s vice president of cybersecurity strategy.
Experts say the stolen Uber accounts are current favourite among cybercriminals because they are often used stolen Uber credentials to book “ghost rides,” in which they create a fake driver account and charge nonexistent rides to stolen accounts.
“They are doing their own market research or where they can find the data that’s most valuable in the criminal underground and they develop their attacks accordingly,” said Cabrera.
