Identity theft going for $30 on black market

People might have to pay a little more for a stolen identity on the black market these days. But in exchange, they’ll get increasingly prompt customer service.

Researchers from tech firm Dell scoured the black market to determine the going rate for various items, ranging from a stolen credit card ($3 to $20) to a hacker-for-hire (as low as $3 to knock a website offline for an hour, as much as $200 to infiltrate a website).

{mosads}For $30, you can get all the information necessary to commit identity theft. That’s up from $25 a year ago, but down from $40 in 2011, before the explosion of data breaches. The dossier of information is know as a “fullz,” and contains a name, address, date of birth, Social Security Number, email login info and potentially credit card or banking information.

While prices for items have fluctuated over the years, 2014 was the year cyber fraud salesmen diversified.

“The markets are booming with counterfeit documents to further enable fraud, including new identity kits, passports, utility bills, Social Security cards and driver’s licenses,” said a blog post on the study.

Some sellers tried to bring credibility to their outlets, guaranteeing their stolen credentials.

As the market has grown more crowded, “reputation of the vendor becomes critical,” the researchers wrote. “It looks like more hackers on the underground have realized this and are trying to distinguish themselves by offering prompt customer service and ‘100% Guarantees’ on the stolen data they are selling.”

Hackers have also realized their expertise is highly valued.

There’s now a full array of “hacker tutorials” available that range anywhere from $1 to $30. Topics run the gamut — from “How to have 100% Successful Bank Transfers” to “How to do ATM Hacks and Get Much More Money than you Withdraw.”

The manuals even give pricing guides on how much to pay for different hacking tools.

”Underground hackers are monetizing every piece of data they can steal or buy and are continually adding services so other scammers can successfully carry out online and in-person fraud,” the researchers wrote.