Short answer
Selling CVV or CVC data is a federal crime in the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 1029 covers the sale, transfer, and possession of stolen card data, which the statute calls access devices. A conviction can bring a fine and a prison term of up to 10 years. Aggravated cases carry longer terms. No legal marketplace exists for card verification codes, and no method of selling them avoids these statutes.
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What the CVV and CVC codes are
Card networks print a verification code on each card. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover use three digits on the back. American Express uses four digits on the front. The code proves the person at checkout holds the physical card. It is separate from the 16-digit account number and from the expiry date.
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What carding is
Carding is the use of stolen card numbers to buy goods or move funds. Sellers of card data advertise lists in criminal forums. Buyers test numbers with small purchases before larger ones. That testing produces declines, chargebacks, and fraud reports. It also leaves payment gateway logs, IP addresses, and device identifiers.
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Why CVV checks stop most carding
Online merchants ask for the code at checkout. A stolen number alone does not pass that step. Stolen databases usually lack the code because PCI DSS forbids storing it after authorization. That one rule removes the code from most breach dumps. Issuers can also decline a transaction when the code is wrong.
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Penalties and enforcement
Federal prosecutors charge card data trafficking under 18 U.S.C. § 1029, wire fraud, and identity theft statutes. The FBI and the U.S. Secret Service investigate these cases. Sentences are computed per device and per transaction, so list size raises exposure. State laws add separate charges.
What to do if card data is exposed
Report the incident at IdentityTheft.gov. Call the card issuer and ask for a new number and a new code. Review statements for small test charges, which come first. Merchants should confirm that their payment page requests the code and that their systems never store it.