Language and Identity: How Carding Community Slang Creates Group Solidarity and Insulates from the Outside World

[Professor]

Abstract: Language lies at the core of any human community, even the most informal and secretive. It not only serves to transmit information but also weaves invisible bonds between people, defining "us" and "them." The carding community, scattered across the globe and existing in conditions of total anonymity, is no exception. In this article, we examine with ethnographic interest how the unique slang of this environment fulfills several key functions: from the purely utilitarian to the deeply social, shaping a distinct culture and identity.

Introduction: Word as Password​

Entry into any closed community begins with a password. But in the digital world, where there are no physical doors, the password becomes knowledge of a special language. To the uninitiated, a discussion in a carding chat appears as a stream of meaningless jargon. For insiders, it's a precise, effective, and secure means of communication. Slang here isn't just a collection of funny words, but a vital tool that functions as a social code.

1. Initiation Lexicon: From Newbie to Owner​

The creation of a professional dictionary begins with basic concepts, which become the first test of professional suitability.

• Fundamental terms: card, dump (data from a magnetic stripe), full (a complete set of owner data), drop (the point of receipt of goods or money), cashout (the process of cashing out). Ignorance of these terms immediately marks a person as an outsider or a "newbie."
• Professional roles: Carder (a specialist in embezzling funds), Dropper (the owner of the drop account or the recipient of goods), Buyer (a buyer of data), Verifier (a person who verifies the operability of the data). By referring to oneself or a partner by these terms, a person not only describes a function but also occupies a clear position in the hierarchy.
• Technical processes: scam (fraud within a community), guarantor (escrow service), profit (net profit), pour (make a payment). These words paint a picture of a joint activity.

For a newcomer, learning this vocabulary is a process similar to learning a foreign language in the host country. The faster and more naturally they begin to use it, the more quickly their "outsider" status is erased.

2. The Functions of Slang: Why You Need Your Own Language​

2.1. Utility function: Accuracy and security.
In conditions where a single character error can lead to the loss of thousands of dollars or the failure of a transaction, extreme precision is required.

• Abbreviations and translations from English (binaries, CVV, SOCKS, VPN) are becoming a universal language, understandable to participants from different countries.
• Slang disguises the nature of the activity from automated monitoring systems and prying eyes. The phrase "buy full balance" is less suspicious to a social network's algorithm than "buy credit card details with money."

2.2. Social function: Marking boundaries.
This is the most important role of slang. It creates a symbolic barrier .

• "Friend or Foe": The ability to maintain a conversation in this language is an instant pass into a circle of trust. Anyone who speaks it fluently is a priori perceived as part of the system.
• Creating a group identity: Sharing a unique language fosters cohesion. Community members begin to feel more than just anonymous users, but part of a digital tribe with its own rules and cultural code. This fosters a sense of belonging, which is crucial in an anonymous space.

2.3. Psychological function: Distancing and rationalization.
Language allows us to reinterpret reality, making it less traumatic for our own consciousness.

• Euphemisms: The words "job", "order", and "project" replace "fraud" or "theft." "Making a profit" sounds more neutral than "stealing money". This is a linguistic mechanism of moral neutralization, helping to reduce cognitive dissonance.
• Victim objectification: The terms "bulls" (card holders) or "suckers" dehumanize victims, transforming them from living people into abstract resources or objects for manipulation. This reduces psychological resistance to committing illegal acts.

3. Communication Rituals: As They Say in the Digital Tribe​

Communication within a community is subject to its own unwritten rules, which also strengthen solidarity.

• Conciseness and conciseness: The ability to condense a thought into a few words or even a set of special symbols and abbreviations is valued. Verbosity is a sign of an amateur or a provocateur.
• Using digital artifacts as an appendage to speech: A screenshot becomes an irrefutable argument. The phrase "I'll send you a screenshot" means "I'll prove it." A transaction hash on a blockchain is a "digital signature" confirming the fulfillment of obligations.
• Slang memes and inside humor: Chats circulate with specific jokes based on work situations (for example, memes about "scammers" or botched operations). Shared laughter over these jokes is a powerful social glue.

4. Evolution of Language: Dynamics of a Living Organism​

The language of a community is not static. It lives and changes, responding to external challenges.

• Impact of technology: With the advent of new instruments (NFTs, DeFi protocols), new words are entering the lexicon to describe laundering or investment schemes.
• Legal pressure: When law enforcement agencies begin actively monitoring certain terms, the community quickly finds replacements, creating a semantic virus that mutates faster than it can be filtered.
• Globalization and hybridization: Russian slang ("beznal", "obnal") mixes with English terms, creating a unique hybrid that is understandable in certain regions, but even more impenetrable for others.

5. Language as a Trap: The Other Side of Solidarity​

Paradoxically, the same language that builds a wall from the outside world can also become a cage for its speakers.

• Narrowing of the worldview: Mental categories begin to be limited by the boundaries of slang. The entire world is divided into "work," "profit," "scam," and "bulls." This impoverishes the individual, locking them into a narrow professional world.
• Inability to cope with legal life: Language habits that work perfectly in the shadows make a person marginalized in legal society. They find it difficult to speak about their activities in "normal" language, which hinders socialization and finding legal employment.
• Digital footprint: A unique linguistic pattern becomes a stylistic fingerprint . Text analysis of correspondence (linguistic forensics) can help establish authorship and connections between network participants, even if they carefully conceal their IP addresses.

Conclusion: An Invisible Fortress of Words​

The slang of the carding community is more than a tool. It is a living organism, creating and sustaining an alternative social reality . It builds an invisible but sturdy fortress, the walls of which are composed of specialized terms, rituals of communication, and a shared sense of exclusivity.

By studying this phenomenon, we understand that the struggle against such a community is not only a technical confrontation but also a semantic and cultural one . To understand the motivations and mechanisms of its participants' unity, we must understand their language. And to offer an alternative, we must speak to them in the language of different values — the values of legitimate creativity, creation, and open social belonging.

The language of carders reminds us of a universal truth: where a common cause arises, even in the shadows, a common language is immediately born, which becomes a home for the soul of that cause. And the fate of those who live within it depends on the nature of this home — open to the world or a closed fortress.