Top identity fraud website shut down

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Oct. 17: A sophisticated online forum, where criminals bought and sold stolen financial information has been shut down as part of a worldwide operation. The forum traded in stolen personal data and credit card details and equipment used in carrying out financial crimes,

Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency was part of a long-term FBI undercover operation focusing on the website known as DarkMarket and in recent days five people in the UK have been arrested as part of the drive. The initial phase of the worldwide operation targeted the leading members of the criminal forum to systematically identify, locate and arrest them. Nearly 60 arrests have taken place worldwide so far in connection with the DarkMarket site, and of these 11 took place in the UK. Some of the arrests outside the UK have been linked to violence and other organised criminal activity. Further arrests are expected both here and abroad as the investigation continues, the SOCA said on Friday.

This week, the City of London and Greater Manchester police jointly made five arrests in London, Manchester and Leicester. Earlier, six arrests in Britain had been made by the Humberside and South Yorkshire police forces.

Criminal websites like DarkMarket feature breaking-news style updates on the latest compromised personal information, so that it can used by data theft organisations while it is still live. These websites are closely guarded and are inaccessible to most web users. They protect themselves by operating on an exclusive membership basis, and by invitation only. "The people involved in this kind of activity are not technical experts, they are thieves with keyboards and they have a certain arrogance — they think they are untouchable. The message today is that no one should feel confident that these forums are a secure place to operate," Sharon Lemon, SOCA’s deputy director of e-crime, said.