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Research has revealed it is "frighteningly easy" for fraudsters to get the details needed to make scam payments on someone else's credit card.

With some basic card information, criminals can guess most security codes and expiry dates in under six seconds, according to a Newcastle University study, and then use these to purchase items with someone else's money.

The news follows a swathe of cyber-attacks that have resulted in the loss of millions of Britons' personal and contact details, passwords and, in some cases, financial details. This has led to a spike in credit card hacking and people losing money online.

Here's everything you need to know about the phenomenon and how to protect yourself.

What is credit card hacking?

Credit card hacking covers a wide range of crimes that involve stealing money from people's bank accounts using stolen or cloned credit and debit card details.

How common is it?

Fraudsters have been cloning bank cards and stealing money from people's online accounts for years. But the frequency and severity of attacks has increased as we conduct more of our lives, particularly financial, online. Recent reports of wide-scale scams include money being stolen from 20,000 Tesco Bank customers, and thousands of pounds worth of fraudulent orders being placed from users' Delivered accounts.

How fraudsters can get your details

Fraudsters can get hold of people's credit card details in a number of different ways.

Traditionally, criminals had to use time-consuming and risky methods to get details, such as installing a tool onto ATM's and card machines, or rifling through people's waste paper baskets.

But fraudsters can now access masses of financial information with relative ease, not having to leave the comfort of their sofa or risk being seen. Some of the most common methods used for credit card hacking include:

Steal data or buy it on the dark web

Personal information stolen in hacks often surfaces on marketplaces on the dark web, as the hacks against Friend Finder Networks, Yahoo and Dropbox all show. This information can include everything from name and contact details to home address, credit card number and date of birth.

Depending on the type of information available, criminals can either guess the rest of your financial details and begin stealing money, or launch phishing attacks in order to gather more data.