Carding as a "Business" in 2026: The Myth of Organized Crime and the Inevitable Collapse of the Pyramid Scheme.

[Professor]

Carding as a Business: Is It Necessary to Build a Team and How to Assign Roles?​

Viewing illegal activity, which carries a high risk of criminal prosecution, through the prism of business terminology ("team," "roles," "scaling") is a fundamental mistake that leads to disaster. The real structure, if it exists at all, is a temporary, highly unstable pyramid of mutual mistrust, where every participant is a "weak link" and a potential informant. Here's a closer look at why "team" isn't a solution, but the root problem.

Why is "team building" a suicidal idea?​

1. The Law of Inverse Efficiency: In a legitimate business, a team increases productivity. In carding, each new person increases the risk of failure exponentially. The Lippmann-Savage Law: Information leakage increases exponentially with the number of people involved.
2. Lack of legal mechanisms: There are no contracts, labor laws, or arbitration. Conflicts are resolved through threats, violence, or by turning in competitors to law enforcement. "Scams" are not the exception, but the norm.
3. Security Paradox (OpSec Tragedy): For security, everyone only needs to know their own part. But coordination requires communication. Any communication channel (Telegram, crypto-messengers) is a potential source of incriminating evidence against everyone. Arresting one person with access to correspondence means arresting the entire network.

What "roles" exist in the wild (and why are they unstable)?​

These are not business roles, but functions in a criminal chain, often performed by one person under different anonymities.

1. The Data Guy:
   • Function: Access to databases, phishing, buying/selling full-zils, bank logins.
   • Risk to the "team": He's always a scammer or an informant. He sells the same "fresh" data to dozens of "teams." If he's identified, he'll turn in all the buyers in exchange for immunity. His data is often poisoned or already under scrutiny.
2. The Tech Guy:
   • Function: Setting up anti-detection browsers, purchasing and setting up clean proxies (residential, mobile), solving captchas, writing simple scripts.
   • Risk: Key infrastructure holder. If arrested, the entire "team" goes blind. Often tries to "save money" by using the same proxies for everyone, which is instantly detected by the systems.
3. Operator / "The Carder":
   • Function: Direct order processing, passing checks, communication with anti-fraud (calls).
   • Risk: The most legally vulnerable role. Leaves the most digital traces (voice, behavior patterns). At the first opportunity, will become the "key" to uncovering the entire chain of command in exchange for a lenient sentence.
4. Logistician / "The Drop Guy":
   • Function: Renting/preparing drop addresses, organizing pickups, reselling goods.
   • Risk: A weak link in the physical world. He could be caught red-handed, caught during a controlled delivery. Under pressure from investigators, he'll give up everyone who paid him.
5. The Fence:
   • Function: Selling stolen goods for cash or crypto.
   • Risk: Connections to the criminal underworld. Often works with the police as an informant. May scam someone out of money, or may turn them in to eliminate competitors.

The only "working" model for 2026: Zero-trust cellular structure​

It is not a team, but a distributed network of random transactions.

• The "Know Only What You Need" principle: The data provider doesn't know who places orders or where. The operator doesn't know the physical drop location, only the address and a phone number. The logistics manager doesn't know where the data came from or who placed the order.
• Exchange through intermediaries (drop services): There are anonymous intermediary platforms where the operator "buys" a ready-made drop address and phone number, and the logistics provider "sells" it, without knowing what it will be used for. Settlements are only made through privacy coins (Monero).
• Disposable contacts: Once a deal is completed, the communication channel is destroyed. No ongoing "team chats."

But even this model collapses due to:

• Scams are everywhere: "Logist" could be a scammer collecting prepayments for non-existent drops.
• Transaction chain analysis: Even Monero doesn't provide 100% guarantee when carefully analyzing timestamps and amounts.
• Human greed and mistakes: Violation of principles, attempt to cut corners.

Why does "business" always end in one of three ways?​

1. Breakup due to internal conflict ("scams"): 80% of cases. Dissatisfaction with profit distribution, suspicions of fraud.
2. External influence ("leaking" or arresting one of the links): 15% of cases. One arrested person, seeking a lesser sentence, provides the investigators with all available information, which leads to a "domino effect."
3. Technological failure: 5% of cases. Anti-fraud systems and law enforcement agencies detect and block the entire chain using modern data analysis methods (AI clustering, link analysis).

Harsh conclusion​

Carding as a "business" with a team and roles doesn't exist in 2026. It's a self-destructive system where:

• Scaling = death. More people = more leaks = faster collapse.
• Trust = vulnerability. Any relationship beyond a one-time transaction is a threat.
• Profit = a mirage. Real profit, after deducting the scam, risks, infrastructure costs, and permanent losses, tends toward zero or negative value when considering the value of potential years of freedom.

The only form in which this can relatively exist is the solitary activity of a highly skilled specialist (Lone Wolf), who covers all stages on their own, from data collection to sales, minimizing contact. But even such a specialist is not a businessman, but a target, living in constant stress, whose "career" is measured in months, rarely years, until the first critical error or sudden strengthening of security systems.

Thus, the question of "whether to build a team" is irrelevant. The real question is: "Are you willing to voluntarily multiply your risks by adding to the equation unreliable, greedy, and potentially dangerous strangers, each of whom has a motive to betray you?" In 2026, the answer is obvious to anyone who values freedom.