Underground Dark Market – International Triumph or the Tip of the Iceberg?

In October 2008, an internationally coordinated crime operation saw the arrests of 56 members of a transnational criminal network used to buy and sell stolen financial information. The “carder” forum hosted on the Dark Market website had attracted more than 2,500 registered members before its closure. 

In addition to the arrests, police seized compromised victim accounts to prevent $70 million in economic loss through identity fraud.The FBI conducted the two-year operation with the assistance of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the US Department of Justice, the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), Turkish National Police – KOM Department, Bundeskriminalamt (German Federal Criminal Police) and the Landeskriminalamt Baden (State Police of Baden-Württemberg).

FBI Cyberdivision Assistant Director Shawn Henry said: “In today’s world of rapidly expanding technology, where cybercrimes are perpetrated instantly from anywhere in the world, law enforcement needs to be flexible and creative in our efforts to target these criminals. By joining forces with our international law enforcement counterparts, we have been, and will continue to be, successful in arresting those individuals and dismantling these forums.”