The Russian Interior Ministry reportedly took down four major illegal dark web websites, which generated more than $260 million in cryptocurrency revenue from the sale of stolen credit cards. These platforms are Ferum Shop, Trump’s Dumps, Sky-Fraud Forum and UAS Store.
The Latest Seizures
Known as “carding” websites, these illicit platforms offer stolen credit cards, and buyers can purchase them with premium gift cards, luxury goods, or (as in this case) cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain analytics provider Elliptic revealed that the four Russian websites collectively generated around $263 million in digital assets through their illegal transactions. The three most used cryptocurrencies were Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
According to the analysis, Ferum Shop alone accounted for $256 million in BTC from stolen credit cards since October 2013. This comprises approximately 17% of that illicit market. However, providing precise figures is difficult since Ferum Shop has employed a “sporadic use of payment processor” over the years, Elliptic stated.
Trump’s Dumps, which infamously used the image of former President Donald Trump for its branding, has raised around $4.1 million since 2017. The platform specializes in selling raw data from magnetic tapes from compromised cards – commonly referred to as “dumps”.
Sky-Fraud forum, where criminals held discussions on “carding” techniques and money laundering tips, was also shut down. The Russian authorities even left a message on the platform saying: “Which one of you is next?”
The UAS Store – a popular seller of stolen Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials – was the fourth website law enforcement took down. It accounted for $3 million in digital asset proceeds, of which $862,000 was made during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Less than a month ago, the authorities halted the operations of UniCC and LuxSocks. The “carding” websites made a total of $372 million in cryptocurrencies during their existence.
How much crypto do Russians own?
Russian lawmakers, who have been very undecided on their stance on crypto, recently announced that they would impose regulations on the asset class and not ban it. This should be seen as good news for the growing number of local investors.
According to some estimations, Russians collectively own around $214 billion worth of digital assets. The figure represents nearly 12% of the market’s entire value.
However, Anton Siluanov – the Russian Finance Minister – assumed that this figure was greatly exaggerated. He suggested that local investors hold around $26 billion worth of cryptocurrencies.
