Old-School Credit Card Scams Are Far From Dead
In an era of increasingly sophisticated AI-fueled scams, a retro threat may be lurking in your mailbox.
Despite the prevalence of advanced digital fraud tactics, old-school credit card scams continue to pose a significant threat. Mail scams involving fake replacement cards and letters claiming an existing card is about to expire have been reported in Portugal, France, and Germany. These scams rely on tricking victims into registering a new card using a QR code or URL, potentially giving cybercriminals direct access to their real accounts.
In the US, two Romanian nationals have been indicted for skimming government SNAP food assistance benefits from outdated magnetic stripe-only debit cards, or Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, targeting recipients in most states. Despite the rise of chip credit cards, skimmers targeting magnetic stripe cards are still used, costing victims over $1 billion annually in the US alone.
Financial fraud has become a major crime type worldwide, with many attacks centered around social engineering, mass phishing campaigns, and other deceptive practices. To protect against these scams, it's advised to avoid swiping cards whenever possible and to scrutinize ATMs and terminals for any signs of tampering if swiping is unavoidable.
Written by urgent.news from Wired's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
