The mysterious goings-on behind DarkMarket

Posted in 'Identity Theft' by Richard Catlin

22 October 2008

DarkMarket.ws - best described as a cross between ‘an eBay for criminals’ and ‘Voldermart’s shopping comparison website’ – has been shut down by its operator, known as Master Splyntr. But all may not be as it seems. The website has long been rumoured to have been a "sting operation" masterminded by US law enforcement agencies. It has even been reported that Master Splyntr is in fact J. Keith Mularski, a senior FBI agent.

In operation for almost three years, through its invitation-only forum the website enabled criminals to review and buy their basic needs. These included personal banking login details, obtained from phishing expeditions, sensitive personal data for impersonation fraud ("full infos") and credit card magnetic stripe swipes ("dumps") for use in the production of counterfeit cards by “carders”.

If indeed it was a sting, it seems to have had only limited success. Almost 60 people have been arrested in Britain, Germany, Turkey and the USA. Fears are now being raised that copycat sites – out of the alleged control of international law enforcement agencies - will quickly spring up to take the place of the closed operation. DarkMarket itself rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Shadowcrew, which was shut down by US law enforcement agencies in 2004.

The international nature of the site reflects the growing trend of fraudsters using card details overseas - exploiting countries that are yet to fully roll-out Chip & PIN technology. Overseas fraud accounts for over 40% of total card fraud, and reached £121.2 million in the first 6 months of this year. Card Not Present (CNP) fraud reached £161.9 million in the period January to June 2008 – up 18% on the same period in 2007.

Indeed, examination of the traffic that DarkMarket.ws has received shows an interesting international profile, compared to where the arrests have been made: