The (illegal) mechanics of young Parisians to ride an electric scooter without paying

Minors use bank card codes, stolen and retrieved from the Internet, to use electric scooters. 

If you follow the rules set by each operator, you must be over 18 and hold a credit card to be able to afford a ride in an electric scooter. Except that you can sometimes be surprised when you see strolling two-wheeled vehicles in self-service, driven by young teenagers. It has actually put in place a real system allowing minors to go beyond the regulation.

The vigilance of the teacher, who discovered the pot to the roses

It was during a banal class of sport that the PE teacher at a college located in eastern Paris guessed how his students managed to pay for their scooter rides. In an attempt to find out what could distract two middle school students from the school, the teacher, who had already seen his proteges circulating in the neighborhood on the electric machines, realized that his students, all under the age of 15, we're using a fraudulent way to have fun. 

"  There, they give me two phones,  " said the teacher to our colleagues in Liberation. On the first mobile, the Lime application is open. On the second figure message containing number sequences and confidential information. In reality, the data correspond to credit card numbers, along with the expiry date and the card verification number, the famous CVV. Do you see him coming? "  They simply use stolen cards to charge the scooters,  " the professor regrets.

Codes from the dark web

The question that deserves an answer is: how could young college students have access to these credit card codes? They simply signed up for an ICQ messaging conversation, followed by 11,300 people; a straw! From this conversation regularly emerge credit card codes. "  The messages are written in English, there are more than 2,000 a day. We say "drop" when we want them to send cards and "dd" [for "dead", "dead" in English, note] when the card does not work,  "explains one of the college students.

The system is well run. Then you have to show some dexterity to catch the code and not let your neighbor take it. The future traveler starts with five euros. If he sees that the code works, it goes to 10, 15, then 20 euros. The amount depends on the bank cards used. "  On American Express, you can pay only 5 euros. The best is Mastercard. When they work, we can go up to 300, 400 euros,  "says the boy. 

Most of the stolen cards would come from the United States. Some low-profile victims would not even notice the unexpected movements on their account. The codes, they are from the dark web, where they would be accessible against 100 euros. A sum paid directly to the supplier, who rubs his hands to take advantage of the credulity of college students, much more exposed than him to the fallout of such acts.