The federal law-enforcement agency in Russia has blocked major sites on the dark web, including a carding market leader. The said forum have been seized, During the course of investigations into hacking groups, with Russian authorities adding to efforts to dismantle the cybercrime rings and detain their members.
According to The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the blockchain forensics firm Elliptic revealed that they have brought down four prominent websites operating on the dark web, The sites have been blocked by Directorate “K”, MVD’s unit combatting computer-related crime.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation says the seized platforms are The Sky-Fraud forum, Trump’s Dumps, UAS Store, and Ferum Shop, which became the leading market for stolen credit cards after the largest marketplace in the niche, Unicc, was taken offline in January, the report details.
According to Elliptic’s estimate, the sites have collectively made more than $263 million in crypto sales denominated in bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and litecoin (LTC) before they were shut down. Ferum accounts for the bulk of that amount with $256 million in bitcoin generated, or 17% of the carding market.
UAS Store, was a forum offering taken stolen remote desktop protocol credentials that cybercriminals use to get to casualties' records from different gadgets. These breaks have expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic as more representatives are currently telecommuting. Since late 2017, UAS Store has made around $3 million in digital currency.
The fourth obstructed site, Trump's Dumps, another site circulating compromised credit card information, has supposedly made around $4.1 million since its started operating in 2017. The two sites were advertised on the on Sky-Fraud gathering, where checking strategies and tax evasion tips were among the primary subjects. Directorate "K" has obviously left a message in its source code, perusing: "Which one of you is straightaway?"
Elliptic notes that the latest seizures have been executed after the previous top carding marketplace, Unicc, and its affiliate proxy market Luxsocks, became inaccessible in mid-January. The seizures also came after the subsequent arrest of Unicc’s suspected administrator by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Researchers claim the crypto proceeds of the two platforms reached $372 million.
In the mean time, the MVD has looked for through a Moscow court the capture of six unidentified programmers blamed for "unlawful flow of method of payment." Whether the gathering is connected to the shut down dim sites isn't as yet clear. Last month, FSB and MVD busted the famous Revil ransomware bunch on a U.S. demand, keeping 14 of its speculated individuals.