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What your information is worth on the black market
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We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
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Jeanine Skowronski is a credit card expert, analyst, and multimedia journalist with over 10 years of experience covering business and personal finance.
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While the loss of a pivotal piece of personal information can cost you big-time, thieves aren’t exactly breaking the bank on any single transaction. Instead, they make money by selling in bulk.
If they sell 100,000 Social Security numbers for a penny each, that’s $1,000, says Robert Siciliano, a Boston-based security expert with BestIDTheftCompanys.com.
They also make money by selling composites. “Fullz,” a dossier of credentials for a single identity theft victim, go for an average of $30 apiece, a $5 increase from 2013 prices. “Kitz,” which contain health care data plus counterfeit documents related to it, net more than $1,000.
These dossiers “have always been a specialty and still are,” says David Shear, a network security analyst with Dell SecureWorks. “These include physical credit card, driver’s license, insurance card, etc.”
Below is a breakdown of how much money particular pieces of information can fetch on the black market. Prices are culled from 2013 and 2014 Dell SecureWorks reports.
Hacker service
Price
Social Security number (sold as part of ‘Fullz’ dossier)
$30
Date of birth
$11
Health insurance credentials
$20
Visa or MasterCard credentials
$4
American Express credentials
$7
Discover credit credentials
$8
Credit card with magnetic stripe or chip data
$12
Bank account number (balance of $70,000 to $150,000)
$300 or less
Full identity ‘Kitz’
$1,200 to $1,300
Source: Dell SecureWorks
If you suspect your financial data has been stolen, be sure to check your credit report for suspicious activity. Get your report for free at myBankrate.
Jeanine Skowronski is a credit card expert, analyst, and multimedia journalist with over 10 years of experience covering business and personal finance.
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