Bank details of 160,000 Britons sold on the dark web for just £4 each - how to keep YOUR data safe

Criminals are trading nan slope specifications of complete 160,000 Britons connected nan acheronian web – for conscionable £4.61 each.

Many travel bundled pinch a 'treasure trove' of different delicate information, including location addresses, telephone numbers and National Insurance numbers.

Cybersecurity specialists NordVPN said victims were apt to person been hacked without their knowledge and were now astatine superior consequence of personality fraud.

A trawl done forbidden online marketplaces by researchers recovered nan UK had nan astir stolen paper specifications than immoderate different state successful Europe.

They were 3rd globally down nan US and India – contempt having a fraction of their populations.

One successful 10 group successful nan UK – astir 5 cardinal wide - are defrauded each twelvemonth via their debit aliases in installments card, erstwhile investigation has found.

Victims mislaid connected mean £833 – nevertheless they are usually protected by their banks if it nan costs was deemed 'unauthorised'.

Overall, NordVPN recovered 164,143 British paper specifications wide were listed connected nan acheronian web.

This is almost arsenic galore arsenic nan adjacent 2 biggest European victims, France (97,032) and Italy (78,676), put together.

Just complete half of these were debit cards and astir a 3rd were in installments cards. They were sold for £4.61 connected mean each - a 5th little than nan world mean of £5.61.

Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity master astatine NordVPN, says: 'The paper numbers recovered are conscionable nan extremity of nan iceberg erstwhile it comes to costs fraud.

'This is simply a crime pinch a immense ripple effect and nan other accusation being sold makes it acold much vulnerable arsenic a skilled criminal tin usage these to get much individual details.

'Once an attacker has obtained nan victim's name, location reside and email, they whitethorn moreover maltreatment ineligible methods, specified arsenic utilizing nan GDPR, to spell further pinch personality theft aliases different malicious activities.

'In nan past, experts linked costs paper fraud to brute-forcing attacks — erstwhile a criminal tries to conjecture a costs paper number and information codification to usage their victim's card.

'However, astir of nan cards recovered were sold alongside nan email and location addresses of their victims, which are intolerable to brute force. We tin truthful reason that they were stolen utilizing much blase methods, specified arsenic phishing and malware.'

NordVPN's Card Fraud Risk Index measures really apt costs accusation is to look connected nan acheronian web, successful proportionality to factors for illustration a country's organization and cards successful circulation — on pinch nan risks of it being sold pinch further identifying data.

The UK classed 22nd spot connected nan index, pinch Malta, New Zealand and Australia nan 3 astir at-risk nations. 

Russia vanished bottommost of nan consequence index, indicating nan state was chiefly a perpetrator alternatively than a unfortunate of paper fraud.