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Can I sell credit card info
Executive summary
Selling someone else’s credit‑card information for use in fraud is illegal under federal and state laws, and underground markets that do this activity are explicitly illicit and criminal [1] [2]. Legitimate transfers of accounts can occur — card issuers may sell accounts to other companies under cardholder agreements — but that is different from trafficking stolen card data [3] [2].
1. What people usually mean by “selling credit‑card info” — and why the phrase is ambiguous
When laypeople ask whether they can “sell credit‑card info,” they may mean one of several things: selling your own payment data for marketing, transferring your account to another issuer, or peddling someone else’s card numbers to buyers who will commit fraud. Consumer regulators and reporting distinguish lawful business practices (data sharing, account sales by issuers) from criminal marketplaces that traffic stolen card data; the former is regulated and sometimes permitted by contract, while the latter is defined as illicit by security researchers and news outlets [3] [1] [4].
2. Legal, permitted transfers vs. criminal trafficking
Card issuers commonly have contract provisions allowing them to sell an account to another company — regulators note this is routine and lawful and the new company inherits certain legal limits on rate changes and notice requirements [3]. By contrast, U.S. federal law makes it a crime to use interstate commerce to sell or transport counterfeit, altered, lost or stolen credit cards or to traffic in access devices and related data; statutes and legal commentaries treat offering stolen card data for sale as punishable conduct [2] [5]. Several legal overviews and criminal‑law resources explicitly list “offering stolen access devices or selling information related to such devices” as criminal [5] [6].
3. The underground market reality: active, illicit, and technical
Security firms and reporting document robust illicit markets — “carding” forums and dark‑web shops where stolen card numbers, CVVs, billing addresses and magnetic‑stripe data are sold — often with payment in cryptocurrencies and with operational tactics to evade takedowns [7] [1] [8]. Investigations and journalism have identified named marketplaces and dealers who flip stolen card dumps after breaches; these sites are described as explicitly illicit and central to subsequent fraud [9] [1].
4. Criminal risks and penalties for trafficking card data
Federal statutes and legal resources set out penalties for knowingly selling, transporting or conspiring to traffic in stolen or fraudulently obtained credit‑card data; penalties increase with the value and interstate nature of transactions [2]. Criminal‑law summaries and practice sites list possession, solicitation and sale of stolen card data among prosecutable offenses, and note state laws also criminalize card fraud and related conduct [5] [6].
5. The “fake numbers” loophole people ask about — not a safe escape
Some forum advice and Q&A threads consider selling generated or “fake” card numbers as a loophole; legal guidance and reporting cited caution strongly. Selling purportedly “for entertainment” fake numbers intended to be represented as stolen still risks facilitating fraud and attracting buyers who will use the product to commit crimes — legal experts and law pages warn that knowingly offering numbers to facilitate fraud is criminal [10] [6]. Available reporting does not endorse a safe, lawful way to sell card numbers to other people for use in commerce.
6. Legitimate alternatives and safer pathways
If your aim is monetizing payment data or services, there are lawful paths: companies can provide aggregated, de‑identified market research (some firms buy transaction feeds under privacy rules), or work within payment‑processor and PCI Security Standards Council frameworks to offer tokenization and recurring‑billing services — but these are industry programs with compliance requirements, not resale of raw card data [11]. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and FTC materials frame account sales and marketing practices as regulated activities distinct from criminal trafficking [3] [12]. Available sources do not provide a step‑by‑step for legally selling raw card numbers to third parties for use in payments.
7. Takeaway and implied incentives to avoid risk
Selling or trafficking stolen or unauthorized credit‑card information fuels large criminal markets and carries clear legal exposure; law (15 U.S.C./15.1644 and related federal statutes) and reporting identify illicit marketplaces and criminal penalties for such conduct [2] [9]. Conversely, legitimate account transfers by issuers and regulated data‑sharing arrangements exist but are constrained by contracts, regulators and privacy standards — those are the lawful, documented routes in current reporting [3] [11]. If your question is motivated by curiosity about profit, sources show that criminal carding is profitable for perpetrators but criminal and risky; sources also document active enforcement and takedown efforts [7] [8].
Limitations: this analysis relies only on the documents you provided; it does not include recent case law or local statutes beyond the cited federal and reporting sources. Available sources do not mention specific safe procedures for an individual to sell raw card numbers to others for use in payments.