US dismantled and seized SSNDOB cybercrime marketplace.
US Department of Justice announced the seizure of the SSNDOB Marketplace, a series of websites offering personal information, including the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers belonging to individuals in the United States.
The SSNDOB Marketplace has listed the personal information for around 24 million individuals in the United States, generating more than $19 million USD in sales revenue.
The international operation was conducted by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Justice, along with the Cyprus Police.
The seizure orders allowed to seize four domains used by the operators of the SSNDOB Marketplace (ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club, and blackjob.biz), shutting down the website’s operation.
The press release published by DoJ reads that the SSNDOB administrators posted advertisements on darkweb criminal forums for the Marketplace’s services, provided customer support functions, and monitored the activities of the sites. The administrators also devised various techniques to protect their anonymity and to avoid being detected, including using online monikers that were distinct from their true identities, maintaining servers in various countries, and asking buyers to use digital payment methods like bitcoin.
According to the experts from Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the SSNDOB’s Bitcoin payment processing system has been active since April 2015. Since then, the service has received approximately $22 million worth of Bitcoin across over 100,000 transactions. Though the average transaction was roughly $220, some largest transfers reached more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoin.
Between December 2018 and June 2019, SSNDOB sent over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin to Joker’s Stash which suggests that the two markets are related to one another, including possibly shared ownership.
The seizure demonstrates the FBI’s strong working relationship with its international partners in disrupting malicious cyber activity.
