FBI Says Dark Market Sting Netted 56 Arrests

narramissic writes "A two-year undercover FBI sting operation targeting online 'carder' forums hosted on the DarkMarket.ws Web site has netted 56 arrests and prevented about $70 million in fraud losses, the FBI said Thursday. DarkMarket.ws was widely used by online scammers to buy and sell stolen credit card numbers, other financial information, and even the devices used to make fake banking cards. Before it was shut down earlier this month, the Web site had registered more than 2,500 members. Although Dark Market was thought to have been administered by a criminal going by the name Master Splyntr, German Public Radio reported on Monday that the FBI had been running a sting operation on the site since late 2006, and that Master Splyntr was actually an FBI agent named J. Keith Mularski." Of course, they say it in German; non-German speakers may want to consult the Babelfish.

Comments

agent identities

[Danny Rathjens]

Why does the FBI publicize the names of their undercover agents?

Re:agent identities

[drix]

No kidding, I thought the same thing. Hope that guy has Lifelock.

Re:agent identities

[spohnsoftware]

I am sure it's real, just like you used your real name to be one of the lucky 2,500, right?

Re:agent identities

[David Gerard]

The German radio station did.

Re:agent identities

[aliquis]

And how did they got it? ..

Re:agent identities

[Riot.ATL]

Might be a pseudonym?

Re:agent identities

[autocracy]

Well, they're not undercover, per se. Whenever a case comes to trial, the officer's name always ends up on the record. Further, I presume there is no such thing as a career undercover officer. I believe the way they, and most police organizations at a lower level, work is that willing officers rotate into undercover operations for a period of time, and then rotate back to "real" duty of some kind.

Re:agent identities

[MasterOfMagic]

They need to do way instain fbi> who kill thier agnets, becuse these anget can't fright back? It was on the news this morning a mother in DE, who had kill her three agent. They are taking the three feds back to New York to lady to rest my pary are with the father who lost his feds ; i am truley sorry for Mueller's lots.

Re:agent identities

[hesaigo999ca]

If you read the outline of what the website admin says at the end, spoken like a true agent,
or not.....I am not so sure this dude is an agent as the german police would want you to think, maybe just want to discredit him in case he spawns another website with his name attached to it.

Re:agent identities

[StormyWeather]

Because he's done being undercover after that. I don't know about Germany, but if it's anything like the U.S. you have a right to face your accusers. That means his cover would be blown in court anyways. At least this way he gets some kudo's and he'll probably get a promotion out of that field work anyways.

Re:agent identities

[djdavetrouble]

They need to do way instain fbi> who kill thier agnets, becuse these anget can't fright back? It was on the news this morning a mother in DE, who had kill her three agent. They are taking the three feds back to New York to lady to rest my pary are with the father who lost his feds ; i am truley sorry for Mueller's lots.

You must have used the bablefish translator too.......

Or taken transation lessons from it.

I think you heartfelt sentiment was lost amid the incoherency of your post...

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe this is code.. from all our long lost relatives.. all rolled in to one message. Compressed, compact and confusing!

Re:agent identities

[hairyfeet]

That doesn't bug me as much as the lack of oversight on these "stings".Did they have an independent branch keeps logs of all conversations online so we know they didn't toss out any "unusable"(entrapment) transactions? And don't think cops won't try to set you up? BS! I'll relate a little personal story just to give a taste.

The good old '90s was the time,where Windows was built on top of DOS and was as stable as a crackhead on bad dope,and I ran a chat room for Windows errors. You know the type,"OMG this thing runs for 5 minutes and then turns blue and says gibberish!".So I'm fixing a VXD error when suddenly this "chick" comes on and starts hitting on me HARD. At first I tell her she is in the wrong site,this is for Windows PC errors,etc but she just won't stop. One filthy suggestion after another and "What's a matter,you don't like hot teen girls or something?" Finally I say " Look I'm working here. Take your dumb jailbait ass and go to a chat site and let those that are having a problem with their PCs get the help they need before I block your IP!"

The screen goes dead for a few minutes,then returns with "This is Officer Jaynes of The Arizona PD working with a federal task force to catch online predators. I just wanted to thank you,for you are the first person who hasn't taken the bait in nearly six months and I was beginning to think all guys were predators." I said "Well considering IANAL but even I know that what you were doing is entrapment,congratulations! I have just looked up the IP range for the Arizona PD and as soon as I push this button you're blacklisted. Buh Bye!"

So I think that the SAME rules that apply to meatspace should be applied to cyberspace. If the FBI does a sting in meatspace everything from the initial conversation right up to the arrest is taped,usually on video,so we can see that no entrapment was going on and to give the FBI extra evidence at trial. So any FBI servers should be managed by a separate company and every single thing going through them should be logged,period. Because I am all for catching pervs and ID thieves,with all the stunts like this,where they didn't even bother to log referrers so a rickroll could have ended with you in jail or dead,frankly I don't trust them as far as I can throw their server blade.

Re:agent identities

[MasterOfMagic]

* woosh *

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_is_babby_formed_How_girl_get_pragnent

Re:agent identities

[Brian Gordon]

Wow that's insane!

At trial, defendant suggested unrealistic, unlikely explanations as to how his computer was linked to the post.

How unrealistic is "someone sent me a link"? It's entirely plausible that the link text he clicked was completely unrelated; even if it's unlikely and unrealistic, you have to have AIRTIGHT evidence if you're locking someone in a cage for a decade.

Re:agent identities

[duffbeer703]

Court records, including the names of testifying witnesses, are public.

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

You sir need to watch the video about why you should never talk to police officers EVER. The main reason is because officers are NOT required to keep video or audio of their transactions by any means and if they happen to make video or audio recordings, they can just as easily take notes that say "the defendant said/did this" and destroy the media. I'm sure one of the lawyer-types here will clarify it a bit but I know for certain it's the truth, and it's another method they use to snare you once you've spoken to them.

Re:agent identities

[OeLeWaPpErKe]

There is no such thing as "airtight" evidence. There's always the possibility of "a string of coincidences".

This is not a problem with FBI agents, with oversight, or with anything, but a basic mathematical problem. It manifests itself when trying to measure the speed of light, and it manifests itself (a LOT worse) when trying to determine if someone is guilty of a crime. It even manifests itself in mathematical disciplines.

And it can't be eliminated ... ever (as in in mathematics there's a proof that eliminating doubt from even natural number theory would take an infinite amount of work to be done, for every other discipline it's beyond trivial to prove that there is no certainty without at least infinite checks (yes you can check more than infinitely many times) ).

If you demand airtight evidence, you couldn't lock up Bill Ayers for bombing. You couldn't accuse a falling snowflake of being white. You couldn't say that Hitler harmed even a single fly.

There is no such thing as airtight evidence. We still need to deal with criminals. Therefore less than ideal evidence is going to have to do. Deal with it.

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, I saw a girl on Myspace who went on a rampage about a site that she said was promoting kiddie porn. The problem was the stupid bitch provided a fucking link and some of us just won't take someone's word for it. Well, the link did NOT contain kiddie porn though it could have been in the "members area" but the thing that kills me still is that she was stupid enough to provide a link as though nobody was going to click on it to determine if she was full of shit.

I mean I saw a bitch go completely apeshit over the "bonzai kitten" joke site claiming it was real and then defended her idiocy by claiming the site still should be banned when she was shown it was a joke, so I don't take someone's word for anything these days.

Anyway, what if someone accidentally clicked on a link? I have a kind of a tic when I hold my right-mouse button finger at a certain angle; if I had it on my left-mouse finger, I could accidentally click on anything on my desktop.

Re:agent identities

[conlaw]

It's entirely plausible that the link text he clicked was completely unrelated; even if it's unlikely and unrealistic, you have to have AIRTIGHT evidence if you're locking someone in a cage for a decade.

In the first place, evidence in a criminal trial doesn't need to be "airtight"; the standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the defendent did what he was accused of.

Second, the defendant has a much storong case if he can show that the illegal images were received in a post from someone with whom he reglarly corresponds, titled, "My 4-year-old's birthday party." Responding to a an anonymous post or one from a stranger, titled, "Sex with my 4-year-old" pretty much establishes an intent to view illegal material.

Re:agent identities

[Golddess]

How unrealistic is "someone sent me a link"? It's entirely plausible that the link text he clicked was completely unrelated

Yeah, tell me about it.

(Disclaimer, that might be goatse, but I was too chicken-shit to find out for certain.)

Re:agent identities

[kalirion]

Responding to a an anonymous post or one from a stranger, titled, "Sex with my 4-year-old" pretty much establishes an intent to view illegal material.

Yes, if they really did respond to that post. Do you know what a rickroll is? Anyone could send you a link titled "check it out, tiger riding a horse!" which takes you to the same exact page as that anonymous post. Only thing you'd be guilty of is stupidity for clicking on a link in an email. Only thing you'd be found guilty of is child abuse.

Re:agent identities

[Spice Consumer]

Either way their names come up in the court case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escabar actually had people that worked for him take the fall and have the lawyers report this information to him so he could weed out the moles in his organization.

Re:agent identities

[Toll_Free]

lol.

You really need to brush up on what entrapment is.

They where NOT trying to entrap you. Selling you narcotics and then arresting you for owning them is NOT entrapment.

Your story is suspect anyway. Any cop worth (his / her) salts isn't going to be telling you that you are a good boy afterwards for not taking the bait.

Looking up IP space for the police? LOL. Heard of AOL dialup?

This post stinks of bullshit. I'm removing my shoes and walking on. snopes couldn't even stand for this one.

--Toll_Free

Re:agent identities

[djdavetrouble]

Holy crap, I missed a meme !!!

back to meme school for me.

Carry on.

I wondered what that sound was.

Re:agent identities

[Crazy Taco]

Although Dark Market was thought to have been administered by a criminal going by the name Master Splyntr, German Public Radio reported on Monday that the FBI had been running a sting operation on the site since late 2006, and that Master Splyntr was actually an FBI agent named J. Keith Mularski."

I'm surprised anyone trusted him. Had I been a scammer, I would have only done business with Shredder or Krang. Everyone knows Master Splynter is one of the good guys! With this guy, I'd have been afraid four mutant turtles would show up and club me themselves!

Re:agent identities

[mrsteveman1]

"So I think that the SAME rules that apply to meatspace should be applied to cyberspace."

Meatspace = cyberspace, haven't you ever seen goatse?

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the fact that he was probrably a MEMBER on the site says something. They have clearly not arrested someone for simply visiting the site, have they? Foolish.

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

I wondered what that sound was.

In this case it would seem to be the sound of an epeen narrowly missing your head. Good thing you ducked.

Re:agent identities

[steelfood]

Selling you narcotics itself in an of itself is not entrapment. Repeatedly pestering you to buy narcotics until you do is entrapment.

Cops are, by and large, dumb. Local (exclusing large cities) and state cops are typically dumber than federal agents. Even for TFA, the FBI was logging into their server from a government IP block. I'm typically skeptical, but I don't see anything glaringly inconsistent with this anecdote. And quite frankly, there have been many such sting operations, and I wouldn't be surprised if a /.er got to experience it firsthand.

Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if a /.er got caught by such an operation and thrown in prison either...

Re:agent identities

[mcgrew]

You don't have to say "f*ck", this is slashdot. You can say "fuck" here. Likewise you don't have to call your spade a "pointy shovel".

And you don't have to call the Secret Police "undercover agents". They'd goddamned secret police, and no free society needs them. If your law enforcement officers are incompetent to catch criminals, maybe you need better cops or better laws.

Re:agent identities

[mcgrew]

Selling you narcotics and then arresting you for owning them is NOT entrapment.

Then what, pray tell, IS? Sure looks like entrapment to me, and if I wind up on a jury where some poor slob got busted for buying dope from a cop, I'll hold out for a "not guilty" verdict. Actually since I don't believe the feds have the constitutional authority to outlaw drugs (they needed a constitutional amendment to outlaw alcohol, and I see no difference between it and any other drug) if I'm on the jury on a drug case, he or she will get off.

If a cop pretends to be a whore and walks up and says "suck your dick for twenty dollars?" that's entrapment. If she just LOOKS like a hooker and walks the streets like a whore (actually any Secret Police is a whore in my book) and you offer HER twenty bucks to suck your dick, first you're paying too much and second it's NOT entrapment.

Sitting outside a dope house and busting you as you come out isn't, as I found out when I drove two friends to a house in the ghetto to meet a slumlord who needed slums cleaned after evicting his impoverished tenents.

It and another episode of the cops abusing my Constitutional rights is journaled here.

Re:agent identities

[infonography]

Because if they don't Dick Cheney and Robert Novak will do it for them.

Re:agent identities

[Anonymous Coward]

If ... you offer HER twenty bucks to suck your dick, first you're paying too much...

If I ever find myself in Springfield, would you mind if I looked you up and had you show me around? That level of service is $100+ around these parts...

Re:agent identities

[mcgrew]

Sure, officer, no problem. Are you a beat cop or a detective?

Re:agent identities

[Tanktalus]

The definition of entrapment has three things:

1. The idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime. Offering you narcotics passes this test. Running a site for clearing stolen credit card information, being passive, does not.
2. The government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving him the opportunity to commit the crime is not the same as persuading him to commit the crime. Asking you merely once if you want to buy narcotics isn't persuading you. Running a site for clearing stolen credit card information isn't, either.
3. The person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before the government agents spoke with him. If you weren't willing to buy narcotics, someone asking you to buy some wouldn't get you to do it. If you didn't already have credit card info to sell, or want to buy stolen credit card, you wouldn't be looking for the sting site.

So, no, this is not entrapment.

Re:agent identities

[nite2332]

what about Vinnie Terranova? I've only ever heard of him being undercover.

Re:agent identities

[cheater512]

Falling snowflakes arent white. They are transparent. :)

Re:agent identities

[Antique Geekmeister]

So that Tsutomo can hunt them down when they violate their parole conditions? Look into http://www.takedown.com/ for more details. The FBI has a long established record of actually fostering more crime than they prevent with protected informants such as Mr. Mitnick in the computer world, and Whitey Bulger in the gangster world.

Re:agent identities

[Antique Geekmeister]

This does not match my experience with the FBI. They are, classically, incompetent at actually prosecuting computer crime or pursuing anything that might actually interfere with a political campaign contributor or make them work for it.

Re:agent identities

[Antique Geekmeister]

Not necessarily. Do hop over to Groklaw.net for details on what is public, and what is not, in the SCO vs. Linux trial.

Re:agent identities

[failedlogic]

So you're saying there are much larger conspirators at play? Where is their dome-of-terror? What type of turtles exactly are you worried about? I hadn't seen any carrying a 'Club'. Sword and nunchucks yes.

Re:agent identities

[hairyfeet]

Thank you! As for how I blocked the Ip addresses we had this thing called Astalvista(pre Google and damned if I know whether I spelled it right) where typing in "Arizona PD IP Addresses" brought up one of the many anti big brother blacklist sites. Sure we didn't have BlueTack and Peerguardian back then,but that is why we had some seriously huge hosts files. I also ran WHOIS on the IP of the "chick" and it came back as Arizona PD,so that is why I believed it wasn't a troll.

As to why "she" told me? Damned if I know. Maybe in her arrogant mind patting me on the head and saying "good boy" was actually nice. I know it severely pissed me off because at the time I was trying to help a poor bastard that had a nasty graphics error because he installed the wrong ATI Rage driver for his Mobo(before universal drivers) and when he added a Voodoo card(yes I'm really damned old) it took a massive dump and even without the card installed he'd only last around 4-12 minutes before he'd BSOD and we'd lose the link.

So while I'm trying to help this poor guy I'm getting "ASL?" and "I'm 16 and really hot. Want to see my webcam pic?" and being a MOD I tried to be nice at first. I said "Sorry,but you are lost. This is not a chat site. This is for those that have serious PC issues and need help. So if you don't mind please leave if you don't have a problem." But did she quit? Hell no! Just kept on and on getting dirtier by the minute and blowing my train of thought while I'm trying to walk this guy through the fix for his PC.

But the point is there was NO REASON to try that shit there. The past conversations was stuff like "Sound Blaster crackles" and Which cards play nice with a Voodoo card". And if the FBI "stings" are anything like that one then I'd have to call it entrapment. Because until I just got rude and told her to piss off she just wouldn't take no for an answer,and I said no at LEAST 2 dozen times while I was helping that poor bastard out. But on a happier note after I got rid of her and got the guy fixed up he asked for my address so he could send me a thank you note(simpler times) and he not only sent me a thank you note but also a $25 Radio Shack gift card,which was nice and helped me pick up some adapters. But of course later came the wave of griefers and it became too much of a hassle to deal with anymore. Anyway that is just what happened to me,and at the time I'd have rather had it not,as I felt like blowing a blood vessel thanks to that ass.

Re:agent identities

[Hognoxious]

The thing with turtles is that even if you kill the one at the front, there's another one ready to take his place.

Master Splynter?

[oodaloop]

Why are we wasting our time on rodents when the Shredder is still out there?

Re:Master Splynter?

[Apple Acolyte]

The FBI has apparently taken down Master Splinter. Quick brothers, to the Turtle Van! Haha.

This bust really alters the context of the ninja in Ninja Turtles, doesn't it?

Re:Master Splynter?

[Tetsujin]

Why are we wasting our time on rodents when the Shredder is still out there?

I suspect the cybernetic hand of Baxter Stockman is somehow behind this...

Ich fuer ein

[Hognoxious]

Ich fuer ein sage wilkommen zu unseren neuen ... ah, fuck it.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Sique]

Ich zumindest begrüße unsere neuen Oberhäupter.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Anonymous Coward]

Ich zumindest begrüße unsere neuen Oberhäupter.

Shouldn't that spell Führer?

Re:Ich fuer ein

[dkleinsc]

Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beirhund das Oder die Flipperwald gersput.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[morgan_greywolf]

English speakers: I, for one welcome our new ...ah, fuck it.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[morgan_greywolf]

And before you ask, no I didn't use a machine translator.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Anonymous Coward]

Well done. Would you like a biscuit?

I don't speak any German and I knew what it meant.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Windows_NT]

man, I took German for 3 years in school, and the only words i recognized were 'ein' and 'wilkommen'. Heres one for ya:
Zwei Kartoffel warst sitzen in der bakofen.
Die erste kartoffel sagt, "Est ist sehr heist!"
Und die zweite kartoffel sagt, "Du meine gute! Ein sprechen kartoffel!."
-- Die Kartoffel witz
Sorry bout the spelling ;)

Re:Ich fuer ein

[ConceptJunkie]

I tried to Babelfish that and the whole site went down... what gives?!

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah... and it's only one.
that makes
Ich zumindest begrüße unseren neuen Führer.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[durnurd]

I assume this is the "funniest joke of all time", yes?

I'm particularly fond of this one that doesn't translate well:

"Was ist darunter?"
"Worunter?"
"Unterhosen?! Hah!"

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Qbertino]

Well done. Would you like a biscuit?
I don't speak any German and I knew what it meant.

Which isn't too difficult, as it's german wording, but in english grammar - which sounds awkward to german ears and thus is funny in more that one way.

But it also works the other way around. English wording directly translated whilst keeping the german grammar is particularly funny as those germans understanding english will recognise the awkward and funny german grammar in english sentences inmediately and then recognise the directly translated german compound-words on a second parse. Which is even more funny because the german language has many compound words. Exceptionally funny with proverbs and such that can't all be translated directly without transforming them.

Such as: "By your english there runs it me yes cold the back down." or "By your english there get I yes a circle-run-together-break."

And what about you, speak you english?

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty good, though in the original context, "welcome" might translate better to s. freuen auf.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Sique]

The literal translation of "to welcome someone" is "jemanden willkommen heißen", but I shortened that to "begrüßen".

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Sique]

Ok. For the german readers here a translation:

Zwei Kartoffeln saßen im Backofen.
Die erste Kartoffel sagte: "Es ist sehr heiß!"
Da sagte die zweite Kartoffel: "Du meine Güte! Eine sprechende Kartoffel!"

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Windows_NT]

my german teacher would not be impressed.
thanks for fixing that

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Anonymous Coward]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAArrrggghhh......

("he wouldn't write 'arrrghhh' he'd just say it!")

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Hognoxious]

before you ask, no I didn't use a machine translator.

Me neither. Does it show?

The question.

[halcyon1234]

I think the real question is this:

How exactly does one pay online for a credit card number?

Re:The question.

[ragethehotey]

Western Union or E-Gold, both relatively untraceable when used by people that know what they are doing. (Which is why a trust-based system such as an online forum is essential to the entire enterprise being able to function, and even so, criminals ripping off other criminals runs rampant)

Re:The question.

[Anonymous Coward]

E-Currency

Re:The question.

[skeeto]

criminals ripping off other criminals runs rampant

Are you saying there really is no honor among thieves?

Re:The question.

[ConceptJunkie]

Thieves, politicians, corporate executives, you name it...

Re:The question.

[Registered Coward v2]

I think the real question is this:

How exactly does one pay online for a credit card number?

With a credit card?

Re:The question.

[Tubal-Cain]

A stolen one near it's credit limit.

Re:The question.

[mcgrew]

Thieves, politicians, corporate executives

That statement is self-redundant. Politicians and corporate executives ARE thieves. I'd trust a shoplifting crackhead before I trusted a politician or a corporate executive.

Re:The question.

[ConceptJunkie]

Well, I think it's fair to say not all politicians and corporate executives are thieves... somewhere... maybe... hopefully?

Re:The question.

[ya really]

webmoney, it's based in russia

Re:The question.

[mcgrew]

Judging by mcgrew's razor, they're all thieves. To hell with hanlon (and Heinlein), Never attribute to stupidity or incompetence that which can be adequately explained by greedy self interest.

protection racket

[fatalwall]

So are they saying the form was run by the FBI?

GOLLY!! We better warn the Turtles that Splinter is also Shredder!!

Re:protection racket

[dnoyeb]

My thought exactly. At first I was thinking, good show. Our tax dollars at work. Then when I read that the FBI ran the site I was thinking, how can this not be entrappment?

I suppose the FBI will try to use the knowledge and people they gain from this sting to persue other cases. I can't see how they could prosecute the people they catch on this site that would not have existed if the FBI did not set it up.

Re:protection racket

[X0563511]

I'm sure they didn't go so far as to say "hey, talk about stealing credit cards here!"

Giving someone a room to talk in is hardly entrapment.

Re:protection racket

[deniable]

The FBI was given a mission to get online crime under control, so that's what they did. In Australia, one drug squad took control of the local drug scene and supposedly ran it very well.

Re:protection racket

[ConceptJunkie]

Entrapment would be if they found people and pursued them, "Wanna buy some credit card numbers? Huh? Huh? Well dooya?!"

It seems to me that if you set up a front and people come to you soliciting illegal transactions that it's not entrapment at all. They had already decided to do the illegal thing and found you.

Splyntr made a funny...

[Anonymous Coward]

So this Splyntr was admin & FBI? Hmm. FBI sponsered? So the whole police informant fiasco was gonna blow their cover, even though it may have not been a sting-op to begin with, and then the FBI decided to arrested their scammer friends. They do this with drugs all of the time. A whistle blower narcs on law enforcement. Before the word gets out, they say they found a huge stash of plants out in the boonies. Fake plants get destroy, for show, and the good stuff gets distributed. They look good and start over again.

Re:Splyntr made a funny...

[digitalsolo]

So... are there cookies and punch in the little world you live in?

Re:only 56 arrests?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, when we make only one arrest with Osama been Laughin', are you going to complain yet again?

There's no "only". Each person arrested could have done millions of dollars of damage to countless people's lives and there's always that one particularly talented individual in the crowd that could do far worse. So, one or a hundred, I'm not complaining. Get those leeches off the street.

Dark market shut down.

[theaveng]

Dang.

Re:Dark market shut down.

[I cant believe its n]

The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid your neighbors' wallets and give you money.

Exactly, the government is more like an older male sibling, who's purpose is to waste a lot of your money, buying things you don't want, at a too high price from companies that his friends own.

Oh come ON

[yttrstein]

So, the FBI has rounded up 56 people allegedly involved in credit card scamming...by...luring them with a url called "darkmarket.ws".

It's plain to see that its very important to the FBI to catch the smartest criminals, and that they'll spend any amount of money and take any amount of time to do it.

Thanks, FBI.

Re:Oh come ON

[GargamelSpaceman]

Hahahahahaa.

Re:Oh come ON

[Anonymous Coward]

They were just copying what's been done before.

There have been numerous similar online forums before this, the 3 most famous being, probably:

shadowcrew

carderplanet

darkprofits

these were all actually run by the criminals and not by an FBI sting, so it's not like there wasn't precedent for such an obviously named forum.

Its a Conspiracy!

[Quantus347]

Its a Conspiracy! The FBI has been scamming millions out of Americans to pay for the robotic technology that keeps Cheney's mechanical heart beating. Now the US economy cant handle it and they've outsourced to China, so they call it a Sting Operation.

Is is that the DHS following me?? *Pulls brim of tinfoil lined ballcap down and attempts to fade into the crowd*

Re:Its a Conspiracy!

[mcgrew]

The FBI has been scamming millions out of Americans to pay for the robotic technology that keeps Cheney's mechanical heart beating

We are cyborg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is not ony futile, you will not resist. You wil beg to join us. You will PAY to join us.

Just ask your grandma, chances are she's one of us.

Re:only 56 arrests?

[csartanis]

Err, you actually think someone is looking for bin laden?

Re:only 56 arrests?

[IndustrialComplex]

Err, you actually think someone is looking for bin laden?

Yes. If you think otherwise, then you really need to loosen the tinfoil.

Re:only 56 arrests?

[Anonymous Coward]

my thoughts exactly... especially after hearing about that youtube video of US soldiers chucking a dog off a cliff and laughing about it.

I don't get it

[spyrochaete]

So the FBI created and administered this forum encouraging illegal activity, attracted 2500 users over 2 years, and arrested 56. Don't those numbers seem lopsided? Didn't the FBI create many more criminals than it caught? Isn't it legally and morally reprehensible to trifle with real citizens' financial information in order to catch such a tiny number of perps? What of the innocents whose financial histories have been at risk these past 2 years?

Am I missing something here? Isn't this entrapment? And reckless endangerment on behalf of the FBI?

Re:I don't get it

[Zironic]

Not everyone that visits that kind of forum is engaged in criminal activity. They can only arrest people they have proof against.

Re:I don't get it

[Dachannien]

Most of those "users" were probably spambots, if it's anything like the forums I maintain. :P

As for the entrapment angle, this one's easy. The FBI guy sets up the site, drops a few whispers around the Tubes, and gets people to show up. Maybe the FBI has some controlled info to spread around so that people get interested, but they can turn those accounts off quickly enough that it doesn't spend a lot of taxpayer money.

After a while, people start exchanging their own stolen credit card info for cash using the site as an intermediary. They discuss their own criminal exploits, and they unwittingly provide the information needed to trace themselves to their physical location, because they now trust the site and don't bother using a proxy for anonymity. The FBI guy only has to stay involved in a general way, making his presence felt as the site's maintainer, and everyone else will continue willingly providing evidence against themselves without the direct prodding of the FBI guy.

And that's not entrapment.

Re:I don't get it

[Jester998]

[italic]Isn't this entrapment? [/italic]
No, entrapment only happens when the authorities coerce you into doing something you wouldn't have done normally (i.e. send a hot female officer who promises to, ahem, 'reward' you if you commit an illegal act against your will). It does not cover things done of your own will (i.e. signing up for a forum and participating).

Re:I don't get it

[Kent Recal]

i.e. send a hot female officer who promises to, ahem, 'reward' you if you commit an illegal act against your will

Where do I sign up? And do I get to choose hair-color and such?

Re:I don't get it

[g-san]

Or maybe they could only identify 56 beyond reasonable doubt.

Re:I don't get it

[mcgrew]

You, sir, have a lot to learn. Here in Springfield it's Farley's, the sleaziest dive in town, across the street from the train station and next door to the gay bar. Almost all the customers are drug users and almost all the female customers (and more than one male customer) are prostitutes.

You really should read my slashdot journals if you want to get laid.

Start with A Nerd's Guide to Getting Laid. Ask Slashdot: Women has sage advice about whores, namely DON'T FUCKING TRUST THEM! That diary chronicles my car getting stolen and traded for crack to another crackwhore who tried to kill her parents with it.

Yeah, I drive a murder weapon. I'm a dumbass. My Friends, the Whores and mcgrew's home for wayward women are notable, as is The Crackwhore and the Nerd. Take care, these journals are mostly NSFW.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. I saw darkforum ages ago despite not being a fraudster in any way shape or form, it was ridiculously well-known and has run openly for years. They shouldn't be trumpeting this as some kind of incredible success, rather they should be hanging their heads in shame and despair as to how long it took them. As TFA says a successor will indeed soon emerge, and it will probably take them years to bust that too.

The uncomfortable truth is that the criminals are winning. Current state-of-the-art botnets are very sophisticated and effectively impossible to shut down. Many fraudsters operate with impunity from countries that just don't give a fuck. Banks etc don't really care about fraud, just how they can claim it's the consumer's fault so they don't have to pay for it. The most careful consumer can still be phished because our credit processing is farmed out to the lowest bidder in India, where card info databases are frequently stolen and put on sale to anyone.

Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[flyingfsck]

So, I take it Ebay and Pirate Bay are FBI stings too?

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[francium de neobie]

Actually, Microsoft is an FBI sting for catching the criminally stupid.

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't stop there. Tampa bay, Green Bay, and Michael Bay are stings as well. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone I told you.

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[I cant believe its n]

I know you are joking, but since I feel TPB is a good thing for several reasons, let me just tell any nervous souls out there that it would be illegal for the swedish police to do something similar. They are not even allowed to do this to catch previously convicted murderers selling drugs and weapons to minors. The police simply are not allowed to commit a crime to prevent a crime.
(They still do from time to time, but these individuals usually end up either in jail and/or without a job)

In addition, TPB has never distributed anything illegal to my knowledge. It merly keeps track of where the torrents are located. Information wants to be free and over here it still is (but as usuall, there are people who would like to change this)

We are under risk of contracting the ACTA - They want to search your laptop or mediaplayer among other things.
Please read up on ACTA here

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[cavis]

If The Pirate Bay is a sting, I'm about to be in a world of shit.

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[GoodNicksAreTaken]

Craigslist is a sting.

Re:Ebay, Pirate Bay...

[Wildclaw]

On the other hand, here in Sweden illegally obtained evidence can be used in the court of law, with a few exceptions of client privileges (communication with priests, lawyers, etc).

So even if a police officer gets fired for obtaining material illegally, you can still get found guilty in court because of that material.

Just an interesting note on how laws differ between countries.

This is great news but...

[madsheep]

This is great news and I am happy it was a successful sting operation. Bringing these guys down is something we all like to see and it helps make a lot of hard work of different people pay off. However, there is one item that has been mentioned a few times in other articles that blows my mind on this. From the Wired article:

The German report confirm rumors that have swirled around DarkMarket since late 2006, when uber-hacker Max Ray Butler cracked the site's server and announced to the underground that he'd caught Master Splynter logging in from the NCFTA's office on the banks of the Monongahela River.

In other words they were completely outed, although unsuccessfully, prior to the German report. They were actually hacked and exposed two years ago. That's pretty bad operations security. Never run/manage your sting site from where you really are.. well at least if that plays ties back directly to law enforcement. That's kind of like if a DEA agent showed up to a drug buy and parked his marked police car behind the dumpster nearby. ::face palm::

Re:This is great news but...

[steelfood]

I guess in the end, you don't need smart cops, just cops smarter than the criminals.

Turtle PoweR!

[Windows_NT]

When the Evil Darkmarket attacks, these FBI agents dont cut them no slack!
Teenage mutant ninja FBI agents,
Teenage mutant ninja FBI agents,
Teenage mutant ninja FBI agents,
FBI gonna scam you, Turtle power!

Man i miss Saturday morning cartoons

Re:Turtle PoweR!

[skjrag]

The cartoons are still there. Where have you gone?

Re:Turtle PoweR!

[Windows_NT]

to work :(

What the hell?

[derrickh]

I'm I seeing things or did Slashdot just publish the full name of an undercover FBI Agent? Even if its out somewhere else, it's pretty low to post it on a site that gets 100x the traffic of the source.

D

Re:What the hell?

[mcgrew]

Any time you out the Secret Police it's a GOOD thing. Just ask the dead people killed by Nazi germany and Soviet Russia's Secret Police.

I respect a good cop. I can even admire one. But any country with Secret Police is a defacto police state. Yes, including my own.

Re:What the hell?

[derrickh]

We arent talking about a secret death squad hunting down Jewish people. Undercover agents are a needed part of police work and outting them puts them and thier families in danger.

D

Re:What the hell?

[mcgrew]

We arent talking about a secret death squad hunting down Jewish people

No, we're talking about police who pretend to be civilians. Police who keep the fact that they are police secret. I didn't say "Nazi death squad", your Texas hangman would be closer to that.

Undercover agents are a needed part of police work

Only when you have laws with no victims.

outting them puts them and thier families in danger.

I hope you're not in law enforcement, because you just made all cops look lke cowards. Look at any list of dangerous professions. ANY list. Police work isn't on a single one of them. Lumberjacks and construction workers are at the top of the lists.

And look at a uniformed policeman who arrests a murderer or a bank robber. Isn't his life and family in far more danger than the Secret Police who arrests a whore or a doper? After all, murderers and bank robbers are far more dangerous than any whore or potsmoker.

I am ashamed that my country has laws that could not be enforced without secret police, and I am ashamed that my country, the US, is a police state.

If you're a cop, go on making excuses for your profession. You're not going to sway me by changing the word. Using "gay" to mean homosexual doesn't change the fact that half of all homosexuals attempt suicide, doesn't stop bigots from using the new euphanism for homosexual as an insult, and your calling secret police "undercover" or "plainclothesmen" doesn't make them any less secret police.

IMO If you're an on-duty cop you should be badged and uniformed. If you're off duty you should be unarmed and subject to the same rules as any other civilian.

Probably just another bait program

[thenewguy001]

Anyone stupid enough to try and mess with the identity of one fictitious "J. Keith Mularski" will be promptly put under investigation and subsequently arrested

Re:only 56 arrests?

[steelfood]

Sure, someone's looking for Bin Laden. The question is (or perhaps the questions are), who, how many, and what for.

Re:only 56 arrests?

[Anonymous Coward]

my thoughts exactly... especially after hearing about that youtube video of US soldiers chucking a dog off a cliff and laughing about it.

Well what the hell were they supposed to chuck off the cliff? They didn't have any PETA members on hand.

T-100 was from Baxter Stockman?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if they could asexually reproduce by the cybernetic hand budding?

Re:only 56 arrests?

[mcgrew]

Yeah, well trust the industrial complex to say that!

Isn't "Eisenhower" on your "foes" list?

Wasn't there only 1 mole?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rub some sarcasm on it, usually Beorge Fush works best

$70M vs $700B

[bill_mcgonigle]

doesn't the fbi have bigger and better things to do?

Just based on the title, I figured maybe the FBI had taken care of some of the assholes at the ratings agencies who committed fraud in the credit default swaps market.

Re:only 56 arrests?

[Antique Geekmeister]

As we very carefully make strong alliances and agreements not to cross the border in to Pakistan, where he really seems to be hiding and rebuilding the Taliban and where they sell nuclear technologies to the highest bidders, to get their aid in raiding Iraq, where we knew damn well he was not and had nothing to do with them, but they were rumored to be selling nuclear technologies. There's something really off here.

At the risk of sounding like Booga from Tank Girl

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe that's just disinformation and they want us to THINK that's his name but it really isn't.

We knew this

[Anonymous Coward]

This is old news... We all knew about darkmarket... EX Cardersmarket.net admin (aphex aka iceman) confirmed that Darkmarket was managed by FBI! this proof is still posted in cardingzone.org by its founder AccessDenied!

here it is:

Originally Posted by aphex

I started off writing a fairly calm email about this matter after you sent me those forms, but then I saw that agency was in PA, USA, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up!!

Because remember what else was in PA??@!?!

I looked into it and found out, unholy fucking shit, that Darkmarket was in FACT for SURE 100% beyond any doubt whatsoever, RUN BY NCFTA!!!!!

Whoever is protecting DM is in on it. Jesus fuck. Matrix001 isn't legit he's a fucking COP. All those guys. Goddamnit!! I can't believe it.
!@#

Remember when I owned DM (the many times) I noted that the admin running the back end the real puppetmasters were something called Pinnatech in PA, US. (pinnatech is apparently just an ISP now called nauticom http://home.nauticom.net/)

OrgName: Pinnatech, Inc.
OrgID: PINN
Address: 4008 Gibsonia Road
City: Gibsonia
StateProv: PA
PostalCode: 15044
Country: US

well check out who the forms were to, ncfta.net

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Grasso, Tom tgrasso@ncfta.net
National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance
2000 Technology Drive Suite 350
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
US
412-802-8000 fax: 412-802-8510

The actual logins were like this:

# last -50
admin ttyp1 63.168.243.6 Tue Oct 10 12:40 - 13:09 (00:29)
admin ttyp0 72.22.11.233 Tue Oct 10 12:28 - 14:42 (02:14)
reboot ~ Tue Oct 10 12:27
shutdown ~ Tue Oct 10 12:25
admin ttyp0 72.22.11.233 Tue Oct 10 12:21 - shutdown (00:03)
admin ttyp0 72.22.11.233 Mon Oct 9 14:52 - 18:14 (03:21)
admin ttyp0 63.168.242.7 Sun Oct 8 13:54 - 14:00 (00:06)
admin ttyp1 72.22.11.233 Sun Oct 8 12:16 - 14:37 (02:21)
admin ttyp0 72.22.11.233 Sun Oct 8 10:06 - 13:19 (03:12)
admin ttyp0 72.22.11.233 Sun Oct 8 00:00 - 01:35 (01:34)
admin ttyp1 84.197.119.226 Sat Oct 7 23:25 - 23:25 (00:00)
admin ttyp1 72.22.1.2 Sat Oct 7 22:58 - 23:11 (00:13)
admin ttyp0 72.22.