
THE K G B ELITE AGAIN PRESENTS:
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    ASSULT WITH A PLASTIC WEAPON
    FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
                 BY
               HE MAN
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This is a summary of an article called ASSULT WITH A PLASTOCE WEAPON it deals
with credit card fraud and is intended for informational purposes only.
Armed robbers with machine guns, wearing ski masks stole 6,000 credit cards
from the CALIFORNIA plant that makes them.Only about half have been recovered.
A womens telephone credit card was stolen from her purse while she was in NEW
YORK CITY,and she later recieved a bill for $195,000 in call charged to her
card.
 It is now easier, safer and more profitable to steal with a credit card than
a gun says LARRY SCHWARTZ president of the fraud and theft info bureau of
Boynton Beach Fla.
 Credit cards can be used in person,or the name and number can be written on
mail orders or telephoned to a wide range of vendors.Cards can also be
counterfited,lost or stolen through the mails.
VISA and MASTERCARD losses alone were up 50% from 1982 to 1983-from $135
million to $200 million according to the American Bankers Association.
Both card companies are owned by bank consortiums.
 American Telephone & Telegraph Company reports that telephone calls made
through illegal use of credit card numbers were up an estimated 37% last
year,from $69.5 million the year before to $95 million this year.
 Brian Brigham a spokesman for Visa international,says use of cards stolen
from holders accounts for 35.9% of illegal transactions.These transactions
average $650.The next most common abuse,accounting for 29.2% of illegal
transactions is with cards that holders have lost.The average use here
totals $1,047. The next catagory,at 24% is diversion of cards sent through
the mails. This involves the highest average dollar loss $1,919. Counterfit
cards account for only 11.2% of the fraud but result in the second highest
dollar loss.
 Ok there are three cycles lost or stolen cards go through.First they are
used for large purchases with a quick resale value,such as exspensive
jewelry.Once the dollar limit on such a card is reached, the criminals
switch to a lower priced items that do not need validation by a sales clerk
thus they dont do a credit check showing that the credit limit has been
reached.(VISA AND MC DO NOT REQUIRE VALIDATION ON PURCHASES UNDER $75
ALTHOUGH SOME CLERKS ARE NOSY AND RUN A CHECK).
 More than 93% of credit card fraud activity occurs in 12 states, these are,
NEW YORK,FLORIDA,NEW JERSEY,CALIFORNIA,MASSACHUSETTS,PENNSYLVANIA,VIRGINA
CONNECTICUT,TEXAS,ILLINOIS,MICHIGAN AND NEVADA.
 Criminals (PHREAKS) obtain account numbers in several ways:#1 Searching
merchants trash for carbon sheets.#2 Buying stolen cards.#3 Getting temp.
jobs as mail or telephone order clerks.#4 Working for a bank or having a
friend that does.#5 Getting card holders numbers over the phone (Like
impersonating a card company representative.#6 Looking over the shoulder
of someone making a legit. purchas.#7 Stealing cards from the manufacturer.
 Once in posession of a card it can be altered by shaving off the old #,
and embossing the card with heat to form a new #.
 Finally some sophisticated counterfiters make their own cards. a New Jersey
(SCHOOL) was discovered to be offering classes in counterfiting and related
fraud. Upon completion of the course, students were sold cards to use.
Placement cosisted of providing graduates with a fence!
 The two bank card issuers have formed a joint venture company with Malco
Plastics, a leading credit card maker, to market electronic WATERMARK tape
to approved card producers worldwide. What this tape is used for is to
hold a permanant non-altering code that has arithmatic sequences imbeded
into the tape.Get this> another company is trying to use carbonless sales
slips.Also visa has made a new card,it has a picture on it of a dove and
when it is tilted at various angles the card changes hue(color and lightness).
 Visa hopes to have 80% of its domestic credit card transactions automated
by next year,using on on line terminals. These terminals will enable a
merchant to transmit personal id #'s, known only to visa and the cardholder.
Banks are also starting new procedures.Like mailing cards in plain envelopes
with wadding that makes it impossible to feel the cards.Also they are now
calling the customer to see if they have recieved their card in the mail.
 Ok now a little about the dreaded (FBI). They can enter a credit card fraud
case that involves interstate transportation of stolen property. But they
cant touch a case unless it meets a certain dollar ammount. where CC fraud
is not a great problem the dollar limit is $10,000 and problem ereas the
limit is $50,000.
 Right now ther are no federal laws against counterfitting,alteration,
possessing a card with unlawful intent,using a card or # with unlawful intent,
giving,selling,trading in equipment with the knowledge that they are t be
used for counterfit cards. Several bills in congress would close these gaps.
 Credit cards are one of the major steps moving twords a cashless society.
 I hope that this bit of info has informed you of the situation
that the credit card companies are in. Well that is enough for now.

        DONT YOU DO ANYHTING I WOULDENT DO AND HAVE FUN

           WRITEN FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES

                        BY
                     HE MAN
