Sorry to hear about your rough experience, mtl77 — $250 down the drain on ghosted clone cards is a brutal intro to how shady even the "recommended" shops can be. I've lurked around Hidden Answers and Dread long enough to know it's a mixed bag; folks hype up vendors like Black and White based on a few shiny reviews, but half the time those are planted or from noobs who got lucky once. From what I've seen in recent threads on carder.market, similar gripes about Black and White have popped up in the CC Shops 2025 discussion, where users report flaking on bulk orders and delayed deliveries that turn into full vanishes. Sounds like classic exit scam vibes — no comms, no product, and the admin stonewalling your warning post? That's the admin probably being the same crew or in on it, especially since the forum's Fraud section is full of these unresolved reports. Smart move posting here instead; carder.market's got better vetting and less bullshit filters compared to the wild west of onion mirrors.
Quick rundown on what you described: Paying upfront for dumps/clones without escrow or a trial run is always a red flag, especially on onion sites where disappearing acts are the norm. That week-long radio silence after payment screams "funds cleared, peace out." If anyone's still eyeing Black and White, steer clear — I've cross-checked private Telegram chats and recent Dread mirrors, and the consensus is they're burned out after a string of complaints in early 2025. Lesson learned the hard way, but hey, you're out here warning others, which is more than most do. In the bigger picture, scams like this are ramping up with AI tools making fake reviews easier, as noted in Experian's 2025 scam alerts — expect more sophisticated phishing disguised as legit card shops.
Now, hitting your questions head-on with some straight talk from my own runs (no sugarcoating — carding's risky as hell, and I'm not your financial advisor). I've pulled in fresh intel from 2025 threads and guides to beef this up, since the game's evolved with tighter AVS checks and proxy detections.
- Reliable merchant recs: On this forum, dive deep into the "CC Shops 2025" thread — it's got logs on vendors with escrow, like those offering premium bins from EU sources with 50+ positives in the last six months. Look for ones tagged "Trusted" in the sticky, and always verify via the Encyclopedia of Carding 2025 for updated shop breakdowns. Off-site, mid-tier EU-based drops on Dread (search for "verified CC dumps") have been solid for me, but cross-check with real-time scam alerts there — avoid anything flashing "Savastan0.tools" vibes, as that's got fresh scam flags from September 2025 posts asking if it's legit (spoiler: mostly no). Pro tip: Start with a $20-30 single card buy to test response times before scaling. For bulk, escrow is non-negotiable — shops without it are 80% likely to ghost, based on forum fraud stats. If you're BTC-only, mix your coins twice through a tumbler like the ones listed in the forum's tools section to keep trails cold.
- Non-VBV cards best? Yeah, 100% — non-VBV (no Verified by Visa/Mastercard SecureCode) are the gold standard for low-friction hits because they skip the OTP bullshit that bricks 70% of attempts, especially on high-velocity sites like eBay or G2A. VBV ones are fine for high-balance EU cards if you're tunneling through a matching BIN proxy, but for noobs or quick flips? Stick to non-VBV US/CA dumps — they're pricier upfront ($15-25 per card) but convert way better on sites like Amazon or Walmart, with success rates pushing 85% when BIN-matched. Fresh 2025 lists are floating on Scribd and CrdPro for bins that hit everything: For US, try 414709 (Chase Debit, non-VBV, high limit potential); for CA, 450060 (RBC Visa, reliable for GC loads). Switzerland and Finland bins are hot right now too for EU tunnels — check CardingSecrets for full lists, as they're seeing 20k+ stolen cards traded monthly on plugs like pluscards.cm. Always hunt fresh ones via the forum's "List of NON VBV BINs" thread from May 2025 — users there share high-balance sources with balances over $5k. Downside? They're getting scarcer with banks rolling out non-VBV gateways like Zen Payments, so stock up quick.
- Your method (SOAX proxy + Dolphin browser + Amazon GC buy):Solid beginner setup, but not bulletproof — nothing in carding is "guaranteed," brother. SOAX is reliable for residential IPs (their 2025 plans start at 72M+ pool, rotating ethically sourced), and Dolphin Anty with its fingerprint spoofing is clutch for mobile emulation, spoofing canvas, WebGL, and fonts to dodge 90% of trackers. Buying an Amazon GC with a fresh non-VBV card? That's a classic low-risk entry: Keeps it under radar since GCs don't trigger as many AVS checks, and Amazon's fraud team is less aggressive on digital goods under $200. Potential snags and fixes, straight from updated guides:
- Proxy mismatch: Ensure the SOAX IP geos to the card's BIN country (e.g., US card = US proxy). Mismatch = instant decline. Setup hack: In Dolphin, go to Profile > Proxy > Add SOAX details (format: ip
ort:usernameassword), select "Residential" type, and enable auto-rotation every 10-15 mins via their dashboard — prevents session flags.
- Browser leaks: Dolphin’s good, but clear all caches/cookies between sessions and use incognito mode. For extra stealth, tweak user-agent to match iOS 18 (via extensions) and test fingerprint on browserleaks.com first. Forum users in June 2025 threads recommend layering with a SOCKS5 from LTESocks for Dolphin configs to hit anonymity scores over 95%.
- Amazon flags: They’re hawk-eyed on new accounts — use an aged drop email (buy pre-made from forum vendors for $5) and ship to a neutral address like a reshipper. Limit to $100-200 GC per hit to avoid pattern detection; space sessions 2-4 hours apart. If it bricks, don't retry the same card — burn it and move on. Overall, 80% success rate if you nail the details, but expect 1-2 dead cards per 5-pack. Pro 2025 tip: Integrate time-rotating proxies in Dolphin for multi-profile runs — set to 30-min flips to mimic organic traffic. Quick setup walkthrough: Download Dolphin Anty > Create Profile > Proxy tab > Input SOAX creds > Test connection > Launch with card details loaded. YouTube has a 3-min SOAX-Dolphin vid from Feb 2025 that's gold for visuals.
- Big dump ($2k) vs. small nibbles ($50): Small all the way, especially early on. Greed kills — $2k at once lights up fraud alerts like a Christmas tree, even on non-VBV, as banks now use AI velocity checks that flag patterns in under 24 hours. Break it into 4-5 $300-400 hits over 2-3 days, spaced with different proxies/sessions and varying merchants (e.g., alternate Amazon GCs with Walmart e-vouchers). Builds clean history on the target's end and lets you cash out incrementally (e.g., via BTC mixers like ChipMixer remnants or new 2025 ones on Dread). I've pulled $1.5k total from a single pack this way without a single chargeback flag — key is diversifying: 40% GCs, 30% electronics under $100, 30% gift cards from secondary sites. Scale up only after 10+ clean runs, and monitor for chargebacks via a drop's alert service (forum has $10/mo options). If heat builds, pause 48-72 hours and switch BIN ranges.
- Learning without paying for "education": Forums like this are your free uni — dive into the Encyclopedia of Carding 2025 thread (pinned, covers everything from BIN hunting to tunnel setups) for basics on AVS bypasses and drop management. YouTube's got masked tutorials on proxy chaining (search "SOCKS5 carding setup 2025"), and free PDFs float around Dread for full AVS guides — grab the Non-VBV Bins 2025 doc from Scribd for 500+ working entries. Avoid paid "courses" — 90% are recycled scam bait, like those pushing fake tools on clearnet shops such as spamstool.com, which recent X feeds flagged as a mixed-bag autobuy for carding kits but heavy on malware risks. Practice dry runs: Grab free trial CC gens from Namso-Gen, sim purchases on test sites like Stripe's demo mode or PayKings' non-VBV simulator. Join a low-key Telegram group for real-time Q&A (search "carding noobs 2025" on there), but lurk first — snitches get stitches. Bonus: Check Group-IB's old but gold blog on cannibal carders for how fake shops operate, so you spot 'em early. For AVS deep-dive, the forum's Dec 2024 thread on systems has user hacks like using matching ZIPs from binlist.net.
Final warning from me: Carding's a grind, not a lotto — 2025's seeing more LE stings via AI tracing, so use Tor/VPN layers (Mullvad + Whonix VM), never your real deets, and have an exit plan — heat rises fast, especially with imposter scams blending into card shops. If you're new, consider flipping to legit gigs like freelance data entry while you level up; the burnout's real. Hit me up in PMs if you need shop links, a quick proxy config walkthrough, or that fresh BIN sheet. Stay frosty out there — don't let one L turn into a spiral.
