When fraudsters obtain stolen card information, one of the first things they do is start testing each card’s validity and available funds by making small purchases online. If the card is authorized, the fraudster will know that they can start using the card to make larger fraudulent purchases. If the transaction is not authorized, the fraudster can continue testing it with alternate billing addresses, security codes, or other details until they find the right information. To make this retry process easier, fraudsters will often use bots to test large volumes of cards on e-commerce sites that will give a reason for the declined authorization.
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