# My Credit Card Details were Stolen
On a Thursday in February, I was unwinding and watching TV when a text message from my bank ping-ponged into my evening.

"You will soon get an SMS confirming recent activity on your card," it says.

I was perplexed. What was this about, as I had made no odd or unforeseen purchases that day? I got my response in a second text message around 30 seconds later.

It stated that my credit card information had been attempted to be used less than a minute earlier to pay £108 at an unidentified store.

A [credit card generator](https://www.ccvalidator.org/) works by using complex algorithms to create a random credit card number that follows the same pattern as a legitimate credit card number.

The generator typically uses a combination of card issuer identification numbers, account numbers, and a check digit algorithm to create the number.


## A quick search online revealed it to be a supermarket in the city
A small country on the north-eastern coast of South America, bordered by Brazil, Guyana and French Guiana.

That's quite a long way from my home in London, so I was pretty sure I hadn't popped into that store to pick anything up in the last 60 seconds.

The alert asked me to confirm the transaction by replying with 'Yes' or 'No'. It did cross my mind that perhaps this was a double- or triple-bluff scam and that by responding to an unexpected text message,

I would be making a big mistake. Just in case, I chose to phone the bank instead.

They confirmed that yes, someone had attempted to use my card details over 4,500 miles away from London – but the attempted payment was blocked as suspicious, so no money was stolen.

I cancelled my card and ordered a new one as the recommended safety precaution, given someone else had my details. But as a reporter I was left wondering how did this happen?

How was it that my bank details were somehow stolen, passed onto someone on the other side of the world and almost successfully used at what looked to be a small retailer in Suriname?


## Credit cards are a solution - and part of the problem
Debit and credit cards are a part of everyday life that we don't think about, but not so long ago they would have felt like a strange concept to those using physical [currency](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency) to buy things.

The first UK credit card was issued in 1966, while the first debit card didn't arrive in the until 1987.

Now, there are over 51 million debit cardholders in the UK, accounting for 96% of adults, while over 32 million UK adults have a credit card.

According to the trade association UK Finance, total spending on credit and debit cards accounted for over £800 billion during 2018, with over 20 billion transactions over the course of the year.

Such is the increased popularity of using card payments – helped by online shopping and the ability to make contactless payments in stores

That it's overtaken cash as the most common form of payment in the UK, and the number of card payments is still growing.

## SEE: Identity theft protection policy (TechRepublic Premium)
We're using them a lot more online, too. That makes it easier for us all to buy all manner of goods and services, but it also means that if crooks have the details they can use your account.

if the physical card is safe in your pocket, because with online shopping, which only requires the input of credit card numbers, the card doesn't need to be present.

And the unfortunate truth is that crooks have access to a lot of credit card numbers, thanks to almost constant waves of data breaches from companies big and small.

So how are [cyber criminals ](https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/cyber-crime) gaining access to all this data, how do they trade it and just how big is this illicit underground economy?

"It's a really interesting question because it doesn't have a clear answer. This sounds really Rumsfeldian but there are just unknown unknowns," says Troy Hunt.

Creator of Have I Been Pwned?, a website that allows people to check if their email address, password or other personal data has been compromised in a breach.

Have I Been Pwned? currently contains data on almost 10 billion compromised accounts from over 450 websites and data dumps that have been released publicly by hackers – but that's almost certainly.

Just scratching the surface of the information that's been stolen over the years, because there are many more data breaches where the data hasn't been publicly dumped by the hackers.

Tags
#randomcardgenerator #bulkcreditcardnumbers #randomcreditcardnumber