Is buying stolen CC numbers a crime? Using the numbers would be but would possession of the numbers be illegal?
Possession of stolen property is against the law.
I'm not saying possessing stolen credit card #'s isn't against the law. But, most information laws are not based on theft laws. Copyright infringement, for example, is infringement, not theft. Judges have become upset when lawyers begin to use the word "theft" in their courts, because legally, copyright infringement has nothing to do with theft.
Theft is based on the assumption that someone lost a possession. If your bike is stolen, you no longer have a bike. Our theft laws are based on physical possessions. Only recently have we coined the term "intellectual property" do describe man made information based concepts. That term is not really embedded in our law as property. It is usually defined as a "right" not property. Copyright infringement is, in theory, an infringement of one's right to limit copying. It is not theft. Patent infringement is even more abstract as it defines a right to limit the creation of objects from concepts rather than defining the right to create an exact replica of an object, like a book.
The ability to purchase product and services using information, such as credit card numbers, is a relatively new concept in law compared to our theft laws. To be sure, using that credit card to steal money is still likely stealing, because that is money, which is pretty well cemented in theft laws. But, merely possessing a copy of a number is not theft. In fact, it is very legal to have a copy of someone's credit card number if they shared it with you. If it weren't, it would be nearly impossible to accept credit cards online, let alone store them for customer convenience.
