Oliver Haslam on March 8, 2018, 7:58 am

Apple IDs Are The Most Valuable Non-Financial Credentials On The Dark Web

If you have an Apple ID, and even if you don’t, there is a very good chance that you have seen one of the many phishing emails that attempt to con users into handing over their credentials.

It’s a scam that is far from new, but the targeting of Apple IDs is far from accidental, with a new report suggesting that each stolen Apple ID can be sold for as much as $15.39 on the dark web.

In fact, according to the report that was published by top10vpn.com, Apple IDs are the most valuable logins on the market when you discard those related to the financial services sector.

Our team reviewed all fraud-related listings on three of the largest dark web markets, Dream, Point and Wall Street Market over 5-11 February 2018. Relevant listings were collated and categorized in order to calculate average sale prices.

Amazingly, when it comes to those, financial accounts scammers apparently would rather have your PayPal credentials than those to your actual bank accounts. PayPal credentials can change hands for an average of $274 each while a bank account login only brings in around $160, although the actual value does depend on the balance of the account in question.

Credentials for all manner of accounts also tend to vary depending on a number of factors.

Dark web bidders can get hold of your passport details for as little as $60, while access to online shopping accounts such as Amazon and Walmart are rarely worth much more than $10 and often a lot less. Even eBay accounts with their broad scope for fraud fetch just $12 on the dark web.

Vital communications services, like Skype and T-Mobile, are worth less than $10 each. With these details, fraudsters could send messages containing phishing links to trusted contacts or get around security features that rely on SMS verification.

On the dark web, even logins to dating sites are valuable, and tend to earn bidders on average $3.11 – allowing criminals to ‘catfish’ potential matches, sparking up relationships to manipulate people for financial gain.

With such huge sums of money changing hands for access to a username and password, it is perhaps no surprise that we all receive so much spam in our mailboxes daily. Scammers don’t need too many people to fall victim to their tricks in order to make some decent money and all we can do as users is to be vigilant.

(Via: 9to5Mac)