Cybercrime is big business these days, in fact it's an industry. So it's not a surprise to find that criminals are embracing ecommerce. But I'm sure some will be surprised to discover just how professional and legitimate criminal websites can appear.
For instance, watch the following video to see footage of a website that was selling stolen credit card details.
(Enjoy this video? Check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel.)
The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), working alongside the FBI and the US Department of Justice, has announced that it has seized the domain names of 36 websites used to sell stolen credit card information.
The websites use advanced e-commerce Automated Vending Cart (AVC) platforms to allow them to sell large numbers of credit card and bank details.
Visitors to the websites are now greeted by a message from the authorities:
According to a SOCA statement, two men were arrested early yesterday morning suspected of making large scale purchases of compromised data from websites such as those described above.
In addition, the UK’s Dedicated Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) has seized a number of computers suspected of being used to facilitate Fraud Act offences, and an AVC operator based in Macedonia has been arrested by the Macedonian Ministry of Interior Cyber Crime Unit.
We should all be grateful that the authorities are taking action against those who are turning cybercrime into such a significant underground industry.
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Couldn't one (in theory) simply purchase one persons credit card details, then use those details to pay for more details, effectively buying out the entire sites database of details?
great job by SOCA and the FBI getting these sites shut down though.
Nice idea! But the bad guys are wise to this, they don't accept credit cards...
LOL...no...they accept t them...just not the ones they stole...wonder if they stole the card info that bought the stolen cards...then sold them...I guess in that effect you could create you whole black hole...
good article!
Pretty bad when we start thinking (or have to) like the bad guys just to catch the bad guys...works for me here to keep things in order as much as possible.
And you know this... because... ???
Neither do I, if it seems fishy to me I dont bite and I just leave the site and block it from showing up on google again
Agree this is great job for SOCA and FBI.
My concern is government agents are showing their ability to protect people with such examples, we may see more coming on the way.
Gradually, Internet users will believe it is not a bad idea for the SOPA and PIPA bill to get passed.......
Let see.
job well done by the authorities
I wonder whether the spokesmodel will list this on her resumé:
"2012, April - Video ad for criminals selling stolen credit cards, subsequently shut down by the FBI"
Probably not.
It might be true that she wasn't aware she was working for a criminal gang, but I'm not sure that absolves her of moral responsibility. It's difficult to feel any compassion for someone who whores out her services without any understanding of her actions or their consequences.
>it's difficult to feel any compassion for someone who whores out her services without any understanding of her actions or their consequence
I can apply that that too so many Australian politicians it's not funny. :( yes I'm Australian.
> I can apply that that too so many Australian politicians it's not funny.
As far as I can tell, it's a general characteristic of all politicians...everywhere.
I think many peoples fear of the SOPA law are they will be abused. Look at what happened to megaupload. The copyright trolls are out of control. If sopa was to get passed there would be no internet because every one has infringing content in one way or another. File sharing has become illegal as it is.
This kind of website should be taken down with a need for such a bill. It is common sense that it is illegal to sell this information. Google itself is a big part of the malware problem. The first results for certain searches are mostly malware redirect sites. Google makes it hard to report such links. They really need to ad a report button right on the search page.
Don't get me wrong I love google, but this has been a flaw in their search engine for a long time. I tell every one I know to hover over the link to see what it says if it don't match don't click.