The report found data most desired by fraudsters, and therefore most at risk, included:

Email addresses. Researchers found email addresses have the most intrinsic value to fraudsters based on an analysis of which mentions of data types appear in isolation most frequently. They provide fraudsters with a reliable and unique identiﬁer for phishing campaigns, account takeover, and other fraud-enabling attacks.
Financial data. Payment cards are the primary financial data type mentioned in fraud guides, (referred to in 36% of the guides examined), followed by bank accounts and payment processor information. Fraudsters prefer credit cards to debit cards 85% of the time due to the host of limitations that make debit cards less popular for typical carding schemes.
Personal Identification Information. While Social Security numbers are valuable to fraudsters, they appear less frequently than credentials including usernames, passwords and email addresses.
PII versus financial information. On average, personal information keywords appeared more frequently (in 55.7% of guides) than ﬁnancial information keywords (44.3%). In most cases, the utility of personal information is its connection to existing ﬁnancial accounts or as a gateway for fraudsters to open new ﬁnancial accounts under an assumed identity.

Additionally, the research discovered fraud guides are remarkably affordable. The average cost per single guide listing was $3.88 and $12.99 for a collection of guides sold under a single listing. The average price across all listings was $7.80. Fraud collections focused on identity theft or account creation offered the most supporting materials, including media assets like templates, vector images, official seals or stamps, and examples of legitimate documentation.

Instant Insights /

Fraud Guides 101: How Dark Web Fraudsters Steal Financial Data

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