Member-only story
Inside Discord’s Thriving Black Market for Stolen Credit Cards and Gift Cards
Cracked PayPal accounts and stolen debit card numbers are sold in the open
A user by the name of Victoria sends me her menu through a Discord direct message.
“Selling PayPal, credit cards and Amazon gift cards,” it reads. “Price list below. Please don’t contact me if you are not serious, can provide evidence and vouches. Refunds always.”
She offers every piece of contraband at a huge discount on its face value. A gift card supposedly worth $200 costs $25; a $1,000 gift card costs $80. Stolen credit cards come with “full info on how to use them, including security numbers and CVV,” and they “can be used in EU, U.S., or the UK.”
For most purchases, Victoria says she uses a half-and-half payment system. After a customer selects what they want to buy, they deliver 50% of the fee to Victoria’s Bitcoin wallet. Once the item has been delivered, the customer wires over the remaining money.
Discord was founded in 2015 as a platform for gamers to communicate through voice chat and text chat. Similar to Slack, anyone can start a server, and issue an invitation for anyone else to join. Over the years, Discord has grown into a more generalized social media platform — with…
