Russia Takes Down 4 Carding Sites with Over $260 Million in Crypto Turnover – According to blockchain forensics firm Elliptic, the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has taken down four notable dark web domains. Directorate “K,” the MVD’s arm tasked with combating computer-related crime, has blacklisted the sites.
The Sky-Fraud forum, Trump’s Dumps, UAS Store, and Ferum Shop were among the seized platforms, according to the study, which became the main market for stolen credit cards after Unicc, the niche’s largest marketplace was shut down in January.
Before they were shut down, Elliptic estimated that the sites had produced more than $263 million in crypto sales in bitcoin (BTC), litecoin (LTC), and ether (ETH). Ferum is responsible for the majority of this sum, with $256 million in bitcoin generated, or 17% of the carding market.
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Since its start in 2017, Trump’s Dumps, another website that distributes compromised card info, has supposedly profited roughly $4.1 million. Both sites were promoted on the Sky-Fraud forum, which focused on carding techniques and money laundering advice. “Which one of you is next?” Directorate “K” has supposedly left a note in its source code.
UAS Store, the fourth website that was blocked, was a platform that sold stolen remote desktop protocol credentials that fraudsters used to access victims’ accounts from other devices. Because more employees are now working from home, these breaches have grown during the Covid-19 outbreak. UAS Store has made roughly $3 million in cryptocurrencies since late 2017.
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The new seizures were carried out after the previous leading carding marketplace, Unicc, and its affiliate proxy market, Luxsocks, became inaccessible in mid-January, according to Elliptic. The seizures followed the Russian Federal Security Service’s subsequent arrest of Unicc’s accused administrator (FSB). According to researchers, the combined crypto profits from the two platforms totaled $372 million.
Meanwhile, the MVD has requested the arrest of six unidentified hackers accused of “illegal circulation of means of payment” through a Moscow court. It’s unclear whether the group is tied to the now-defunct dark web sites. On a request from the United States, the FSB and MVD busted the famed Revil ransomware organization last month, capturing 14 of its accused members.