Russian authorities have been cracking down on the use of stolen payment information and carding shops. Recently, authorities arrested six men accused of operating some of the most active and popular online bazaars for buying and selling stolen payment card data. The crackdown marks the second closure of major card fraud shops by Russian authorities over the past few weeks and follows Russia’s arrest of 14 individuals alleged to be affiliates of the REvil ransomware gang. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, carding shops Ferum Shop, Sky-Fraud, AUS, and Trump’s Dumps, were seized by Department K, a division that focuses on computer crimes.
Department K has been posting a message to the seized sites, asking which illegal online bazaar will be next to go down. The same message was included in the website for UniCC, another major carding shop seized by the department in January. However, the operation has raised flags for some researchers. Stas Alforov, director of research for Gemini Advisory, stated that it is very unusual for Russians to go after carding sites that are not advertising or selling data from Russian citizens. Alforov expressed that the crackdown may be part of a deeper agenda for the country.
