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SCRIPT'S TWENTY-DOLLAR DUMPS

numbers and elsewhere parted with around $500 for an MSR206, the underground's favorite magnetic stripe encoder.

Once the shoebox-sized MSR206 was plugged into his computer and the right software installed, he could take an anonymous Visa gift card, or one of his own credit cards, and encode it in two quick swipes with one of Script's dumps.

With the reprogrammed card burning a hole in his pocket, Chris browsed his local Blockbuster and some retailers to scope out the opportunities. Simple magstripe fraud might be cheap and easy, but it had severe limitations. Through observation, Chris quickly determined that shopping for consumer electronics or expensive clothes would be tough: To guard against what Chris was contemplating, many high-end stores require the checkout clerk to physically type the last four digits from the face of the credit card; the point-of-sale terminal rejects the card, or worse, if the digits don't match what's on the stripe. A reprogrammed card was only good at spots where employees never get to lay their hands on the plastic, like gas stations or drugstores.

Chris made his move at a local supermarket. He loaded his cart indiscriminately and checked out, sliding his plastic through the point-of-sale terminal. After a moment, the word "Approved" flickered across the display, and somewhere in America a random consumer was charged for $400 in groceries.

Chris delivered his ill-gotten groceries to an Orange County couple in worse financial shape than himself and then took the husband—a contractor who'd recently had his tools stolen—to a local Walmart to purchase new construction gear. Word spread that Chris had credit cards, and he began doling out his reprogrammed plastic to a few friends, who were always thoughtful enough to make small purchases for Chris as a thank-you.

He could see the outlines of a business plan in his circulating plastic. Drop everything else, he told Max. The real money is in dumps.