The FBI shuts down a Russia-based online marketplace that sold illegal goods and services and accepted crypto payments as we are reading in the following crypto news.
The US Department of Justice stated that the FBI shuts down DEER.IO which is a Russia-based online platform that hosted plenty of online shops that sold cybercrime products and services like hacked data and accounts. As per the recent reports, the FBI even arrested the platform operator Kiril Victorovich Firsov in New York at the J.F.K Airport.
DEER.IO was around since the end of 2013 and at the time of the seizure, it hosted more than 24,000 online marketplaces with total sales of about $17 million. The seizure order was issued by the Southern District of California Court in order to prevent further damage. The hackers were becoming a serious issue in the crypto community and many believed that the hackers stole data and sold it online to get into accounts of crypto exchanges and crypto-wallets. The US attorney Robert Brewer commented:
‘’There is a robust underground market for hacked stolen information, and this was a novel way to try to market it to criminals hoping not to get caught. Hackers are a threat to our economy, and our privacy and national security, and cannot be tolerated.’’
Last year, the cyber criminals that wanted to create a shop on DEER.IO, were charged 800 rubles per month and the fee was able to be paid in Bitcoin or other payment systems including the Russian money transfer system WebMoney. Once the cyber criminals improved their place on the platform, the shop evolved in an automated set-up to easily upload the products and services and to set a crypto wallet to get the payments. The FBI reviewed more than 250 stores that were used by the hackers to sell hundreds of accounts and files with names, passwords, and addresses. Most of the victims were from Europe and the US.
Also, as per the recent crypto news reports, Russia’s biggest dark web marketplace Hydra wanted to create a global, decentralized marketplace with the help of an initial coin offering (ICO).
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