36 Defendants in Cybercrime Ring Indicted for Stealing $530 Million

Prosecutors in the United States have said that 36 people have been indicted for their involvement in a global identity theft ring dubbed ‘one-stop shop for cybercriminals’. The cybercrime ring specialized in selling stolen credit card data on the dark web. The group has been associated with losses totaling over $530 million.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice the cybercrime ring bought and sold stolen social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers as well as other valuable personal information on an online forum. Started in 2010 the Infraud Organization used the tagline ‘In Fraud We Trust’.

Dark anonymous web

Per the investigators the group is believed to consist of close to 11,000 members who targeted over 4.3 million bank accounts, debit cards, credit cards and stock brokerage accounts across the globe. According to David Rybicki, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, most of the group’s members had never met each other in person and only knew each other via their forum usernames. The goal of the organization was to turn into the premier site for purchasing retail items using counterfeit or stolen credit card information.

The hierarchy of the cybercrime ring consisted of administrators who were in charge of managing the operation as well as membership. There were also forum moderators as well as vendors whose purpose was to sell illicit services and products to members. According to investigators the group members would use the dark web to collect information as well as to facilitation the selling of the stolen valuable information.

Worldwide arrests

This is the first time that the U.S. Department of Justice has arrested persons with links to Infraud. Rybicki has said the organization is one of the biggest international rings focusing on cybercrimes. The Deputy Assistant Attorney General vowed not to allow criminals to perpetrate cybercrimes while hiding behind the internet’s anonymity. The number of persons arrested was 13 with some of the arrests having taken place in Alabama, New York and California. Other suspects were arrested in Serbia, Kosovo, Australia, Italy, United Kingdom and France and they are currently awaiting extradition.