Feds Infiltrate, Bust Counterfeit Card Shop
Summary: Federal authorities in New Jersey indicted 14 people connected to fakeplastic[dot]net, a site selling embossed counterfeit credit and debit cards and holographic overlays, which the FBI and U.S. Postal Investigative Service began investigating in January 2013 and secretly seized on Dec. 5, 2013. Prosecutors allege the site's operator, 39-year-old Sean Roberson of Palm Bay, Fla., and two accomplices fulfilled orders for roughly 69,000 counterfeit cards, more than 35,000 holographic stickers and more than 30,000 state ID holographic overlays shipped in 36,000 parcels, with estimated card losses exceeding $34.5 million and Roberson personally making more than $1.7 million.
What's compelling: The operation was undone by ordinary opsec: a Gmail account tied to the site's shipping, an Amazon account linked to the same IP address, and credit card records and a Facebook photo placing Roberson at Dollywood during the shop's December 2012 closure. Prosecutors valued the counterfeit cards at more than $34.5 million using a conservative $500-per-card estimate, a reminder that carding crews buy stolen track data from hacking and skimming operations and then need physical card production to cash out.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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- Cybercrime & Law Enforcement
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