Cybersecurity research firm Privacy Affairs have discovered that for less than US$1,500, cybercriminals on the dark web can obtain genuine information and forged documents that would allow them to all but take over someone’s identity.
In their investigation, Privacy Affairs found that PayPal account details were by far the most common items listed on the dark web, and were extremely cheap. For example, the average price for stolen PayPal account details was around US$200, while PayPal transfers from stolen accounts went for closer to US$320.
Another very common item for sale on the dark web was guides on how to cash out from these PayPal accounts in a way that does not alert the authorities. While these guides often went for a few cents, Privacy Affairs noted that there was no guarantee to whether they would actually work.
The cost of credit card details, meanwhile, tended to range US$10-65, on average. Vendors often offered a guarantee of 80%, meaning that two of every ten cards either wouldn’t work or would have less than the advertised balance. “We didn’t order any so can’t verify whether this is true, but the prevalence of these claims alongside the well-documented increase in identity fraud cases suggest that there is a high turnover of such data,” Privacy Affairs stated.
A full list of Privacy Affairs’ dark web findings can be viewed here.
