Notorious Crime Forum 'DarkMarket' Goes Dark
Kevin Poulsen writes on Threat Level:
A wave of bittersweet melancholy has descended on the thousands of phishers, hackers and credit card swindlers inhabiting the computer crime supersite DarkMarket.ws. On Tuesday the site's operator, known as Master Splyntr, announced that he was shuttering the forum, which has hummed along for nearly three years as a premier vehicle of criminal commerce.
"[R]ecent events have proven that even in our best efforts to expel and deactivate the accounts of suspected LE [law enforcement], reporters, and security agents, it is obvious that we haven't been entirely successful," Splyntr wrote in a message on the site.
Chief among those recent events is last week's arrest of Cha0, a Turkish hacker -- and alleged kidnapper -- who served as one of DarkMarket's administrators. Cha0 was known for selling high-quality ATM-skimming hardware that crooks could affix to cash machines to grab debit card swipes and PINs. Turkish police arrested Cha0 on Friday, identifying him as one Cagatay Evyapan.
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Hacker Reportedly Kidnaps and Tortures Informant, Posts Picture as a Warning to Others
Kevin Poulsen writes on Threat Level:
A Turkish computer hacker who was helping that country's media and national police investigate computer crimes was kidnapped and tortured by a notorious ATM hacker, according to a report from the Turkish press.
The victim, known online as "Kier," had been leaking information to Turkish reporters about an underground figure called Cha0, when he briefly disappeared. He resurfaced in May, and described being abducted and beaten by Cha0 and his henchmen.
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here.
Scammers Introduce ATM Skimmers With Built-In SMS Notification
Dancho Danchev writes on the ZDNet "Zero Day" Blog:
The bust of the notorious ATM scammer going under the handle of Cha0 in early September, once again puts ATM skimming in the spotlight. Among the main insecurities scammers face while embedding an ATM skimmer, is the retrieval process of the device that is now containing the credit card details of several hundred people depending on the volume of transactions that occurred while the device was in place. How are then scammers going to minimize the risk of getting caught without having to come back at the crime scene?
A recently uncovered serial manufacturer of ATM skimmer devices, seems to have solved the secure retrieval of the device issue by innovating, and introducing ATM skimmers that would automatically SMS the complete credit card details to the scammer.
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Kidnapped Hacker Found in Turkey, Arrested
Kevin Poulsen writes on Threat Level:
A Turkish computer hacker and informant who'd been allegedly kidnapped and tortured by a notorious ATM swindler was arrested this week, according to a report from the Turkish press.
Turkish police arrested Mert Ortac on computer hacking charges on Tuesday, reports Haber 7. Ortac, known under the hacker handle Kier, is an associate of another Turkish hacker called Cha0, who allegedly abducted him earlier this year.
More
here.
