The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today the seizure of approximately 145 darknet and traditional internet domains, and cryptocurrency funds associated with the BidenCash marketplace. The operators of the BidenCash marketplace use the platform to simplify the process of buying and selling stolen credit cards and associated personal information.
BidenCash commenced operations in March 2022. BidenCash administrators charged a fee for every transaction conducted on the website. The BidenCash marketplace had grown to support over 117,000 customers, facilitated the trafficking of over 15 million payment card numbers and personally identifiable information, and generated over $17 million in revenue during its operations.
The BidenCash marketplace domains will no longer be operational and will be redirected to a U.S. law enforcement-controlled server, preventing future criminal activity on these sites. The marketplace also sold compromised credentials that could be used to access computers without proper authorization.
Between October 2022 and February 2023, the BidenCash marketplace published 3.3 million individual stolen credit cards for free to promote the use of their services. The stolen data included credit card numbers, expiration dates, Card Verification Value (CVV) numbers, account holder names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
According to court records, the United States obtained court authorization to seize cryptocurrency funds that BidenCash marketplace used to receive illicit proceeds from its illegal sales.
Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; John Szydlik, Resident Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Frankfurt Resident Office; and Philip Russell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service’s Frankfurt Resident Office, the U.S. Secret Service’s Cyber Investigative Section, and the FBI Albuquerque Field Office.
The Department of Justice thanks the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, The Shadowserver Foundation and Searchlight Cyber for their assistance with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell in these matters.
The investigation began in the autumn of 2022, following reports of fraudulent phone calls in which scammers impersonated bank employees to extract sensitive information, such as addresses and security answers, from victims. The stolen data was traced back to a specialised online marketplace that operated as a central hub for the trade of illegally obtained information.A central hub for cyber...
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