WHAT IS A BIN?
For starters, BIN is an abbreviation for Bank Identification Number.
So basically it is the first 4 to 6 digits of a card and generally defines your card whether it is a Visa, MasterCard or American Express, and so on.
A bank may have many bins assigned to it, and bins are generally divided in banks of different countries and are to protect the merchants
HOW IT WORKS?
For a payment to be completed by the respective bank it is a 2-step process, 1st step being Authorization i.e. whether the entered card details cross-check with an actual bank and if it then comes the 2nd step which is Clearance which is your payment is processed to your bank’s website for further verification and in many cards, there is no 2-way verification and upon entering the details your payment is processed and requiring no 2-factor authentication like OTP(One Time Password).
IMPROVES SAFETY AND IS EFFICIENT
Let’s have a pointwise discussion on major things about this heading:
- Cross Verification- The system already knows the type of card, but some websites ask you to enter the type of card, and if you only have the card number and it’s hard to determine its type.
- Verifying Prepaid Cards- On some sites, card verification plays a role in identity verification, and people use prepaid cards to forge their identities on these websites. And another example is free trial websites; individuals can make many virtual cards and exploit the trial period on these websites.
- Saves time – Before sending the card for authorization, the website can check the card with its bin to see whether the merchant supports that particular card from that country or geographical location.
- Identifies the purchaser- BINs provide an additional signature to the purchaser
HOW IT IS MISUSED?
With this vast network of saying fiber optics or copper flowing through every inch of the land, it is quite impossible to make anything without people misusing it and the same is with the BINs.
BINs are used as templates, and there are sites on which you can convert that BIN to a fully functional Credit/Debit card says it is an American Express, Visa, or MasterCard, nothing is protected, and they are used as fake identification and for a free trial like in the case of Spotify, Netflix, Tidal and heck the possibilities are infinite.
First, the person finds which type of card is accepted by the website without 2-factor authentication, and the payment proceeds directly without any hassle and many times with the help of VPNs to mask the location and to make the websites believe that the card is being used form another country.
Some websites confirm the bin-generated credit cards whether they will work or not.
AS A BRAND, HOW CAN YOU STOP MISUSING OF BINs?
The simplest and the easiest answer to this question is instead of offering free trials, you as a brand can offer that trial for less than nothing. The cheapest currency possible for a transaction is because you can pay using a BIN. So better charge every single product, and as an interested customer, I would pay for 1 cent for a Netflix trial. This benefits both the brand and the consumer in the long run.
And as many brands have already banned payment procession through VPNs like there are huge chances you cannot pay even if you own the card via Paypal on a VPN, which is kind of a good thing, but the brand should understand there are places where there is nothing like net neutrality and they cannot access that website and are interested in their services
HOW ARE BINs SHARED?
There is a big consumer market for these types of things. Say it private BINs or public BINs, where the private ones are shared among a very less number of people; hence you can’t easily get your hands on them that easily and they are generally used to make Accounts for further sales.
While the BINs which are available on the normal web and accessible by any general public and shared on Telegram groups, Facebook or any hacking forum can be considered as public BIN as they will soon be banned and generally, accounts made with these BINs also get banned
LEGAL STANDPOINT
It is, of course, not legal to make accounts using cc’s you get using the BINs, but there is no real authority stopping you from that as a worst-case scenario, you IP may get banned, but the basics of doing any stuff like this is using a good VPN because any cheap VPN might just not even get you to the payment page.
But I will suggest you not even try or be involved in any of the illegal activities because the cybercrime department is growing, and in no time, they will be able to find your location with the help of your ISP and hence getting you in trouble.
