Credit Card Theft

I read an interesting post today about the black market costs of stolen credit and bank accounts.  It seems that the costs have been dropping lately, perhaps due to the flood of “vendors” in the market and what is perceived as a glut of supply.  This is scary for a number of reasons.  First, the apparent commoditization of this content – if legitimate – suggests that identity theft has risen to a new level.  Second, the fraudsters are so brazen as to post their pricing in open markets on the web.  Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.  Fortunately, organizations like the recently established Center for Applied Identity Management Research (CAIMR) and the Institute for Fraud Prevention (IFP) are working to bring more academic rigor to the areas of identity theft and fraud research.