Cloned Boy
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A True Story from the Darknet. Bank Fraud and Synthetic Identities.
How does the shadow industry of fake identities work? Who are the “architects” of bank fraud? And why are computer science students increasingly becoming part of the cybercriminal world?
This topic tells the shocking story of Phantom, an aspiring programmer who stepped beyond the law to save his mother and found himself in the thick of the darknet. From the first phishing page to the creation of synthetic identities with an impeccable credit history. We will tell you in detail how schemes for obtaining loans in someone else's name actually work, how hackers exploit data leaks, and what loopholes in the system allow you to “suck” millions from banks around the world.
This is not a manual, but a documentary analysis of a criminal scheme that shocked even darknet veterans. The story is based on a real post from the CrimeTalk forum from December 2022. The story of Phantom is a chronicle of moral degradation, emotional burnout, and the price one pays for trying to save a loved one.
Important: All video information is for educational purposes only. We do not promote or encourage any illegal activity. We encourage all viewers to respect the law and exercise utmost caution online.
Contents:
Hello everyone. Today I present to you a story I found on the closed Crime Talk forum in the archive for December 2022. This is the confession of a man known as Phantom, a computer science student who went from being an ordinary guy to one of America's most wanted cybercriminals. This story began with the most noble intentions, a young programmer trying to save his dying mother.
Medical bills for tens of thousands of dollars, insurance company rejections, unanswered resumes. A reality familiar to many Americans, where the choice is between bankruptcy and the loss of a loved one. But what happens when desperation meets technical skills and access to the dark web? Phantom showed us how thin the line is between a victim of circumstances and the organizer of a criminal empire.
In a year and a half, he went from stealing $230 from a pensioner to running an international network robbing banks of millions of dollars. The Phantom story is not just a story about bank fraud. This is the anatomy of moral degradation in the digital age. Here you will see how modern schemes with synthetic personalities work, how hackers bypass banking security systems, how criminal teams are built on the Darknet.
But most importantly, you will see the price a person pays when he crosses the line between law and crime. The ending of this story is especially frightening. The Phantom got what he fought for - money for his mother's treatment. But when she was dying, he could not be there, hiding from the international search. The irony of fate. Saving one life, he destroyed hundreds of others, including his own. The post was published on December 27, 2022 at 3:42 am.
Since then, the author has not been in touch. Sit back and get ready for a journey into the mind of a man who proved. In the modern world, any programming student can become a millionaire. The only question is what price he is willing to pay for it.
Do you know what the scariest thing in this story is? It's not that I stole millions, it's not that I ruined the lives of hundreds of people. It's that if I had to choose again, I would do the same. Call me Phantom. My last year was computer science at one of the universities in Chicago. Until February 2019, I was an ordinary student. I wrote code, participated in CTF competitions, dreamed of an internship at Google. My GitHub was filled with cybersecurity projects.
I even wrote a couple of pentesting tools that were used at the university. A white hat hacker, as they say. I lived with my mother in a small apartment on the South Side. I don't remember my father. He left when I was seven. My mother worked as a nurse at Northwestern Memorial, she could support both of us on one salary. I worked part-time wherever I could, fixed computers for neighbors, made websites for local stores, freelanced on Upwork, pennies, but enough for food and tuition.
Until that day. February 21, 2019. Thursday. I remember every detail, because it was the day my life was divided into before and after. I was sitting in the university library, finishing a term paper on machine learning, when the phone rang. “Son.” My mother’s voice was shaking. “I need to talk to you.”
“Come home.” I knew. The tone, the pauses, the words. I just knew it was bad. Really bad. Breast cancer. Stage 3, discovered by accident during a routine checkup. The doctor said something about chemotherapy, radiation, surgery. All I heard were numbers. $80,000 for treatment, minimum, no guarantees. “Insurance will cover the basics,” the doctor said.
“But additional procedures, experimental methods — that’s up to you. Insurance covered $15,000. The rest is our problem.” The nurse at the public hospital didn’t have $65,000. The same goes for the student programmer. I spent the next two weeks rushing around like crazy. I applied for every vacancy in a row. From a junior developer to technical support. The answers were the same.
Thank you for your interest. But we are looking for a candidate with experience. Experience. I had experience writing exploits for educational purposes. Experience hacking test systems. Experience creating phishing pages for cybersecurity demonstrations. But this is not the experience that HR managers were interested in. Banks refused to give me a loan, a student without a regular income - my mother's bad credit history. GoFundMe raised $ 3,000 in a month - a drop in the ocean.
And time went by, every day the doctor repeated - the sooner we start treatment, the higher the chances. March 7, 2019. Friday evening. Mom went to bed after another course of painkillers, and I sat at the computer and stupidly stared at the screen. The clinic page with treatment prices was open in the browser - 80 thousand dollars. For us, this was an astronomical amount.
And then I remembered a conversation with my classmate Mike. A month ago, he bragged about making $2,000 in a week on one project. When I asked which one, he smiled mysteriously and said, "There are places on the Internet that pay much more for our skills. I didn't pay attention to it then. Now Mike's words sounded different. I downloaded the Tor browser. It's scary to go to the Darknet for the first time. Not because of the technical complexity, I understood perfectly well how onion networks work.
It was scary to realize that I was crossing the line. That I was looking for ways to make money where legal ways do not exist. But when you choose between morality and your mother's life, the choice is obvious. The first sites I found sold drugs, weapons, fake documents. I was not interested in this. I was looking for something related to technology, hacking, and found Crime Talk - one of the largest forums for specialists in our field.
To register, you had to pass a technical test. The questions were serious - from the basics of cryptography to practical tasks in social engineering. I did it in two hours. The first thing that caught my eye was the "Vacancies" section. They were looking for programmers to write malware, social engineering specialists, experts in bypassing banking security systems.
Salaries were indicated in bitcoins, but even after converting them to dollars, the amounts were impressive. From five hundred to a thousand dollars for simple tasks. From five thousand to ten thousand dollars for complex projects. For one project, you could earn more than my mother did in six months of work in a hospital. I created a profile and indicated my skills. Python, JavaScript, network security, social engineering. An hour later, the first offer came. We need a person to write a simple fish kit.
Imitation of the Bank of America page. Payment - 0.1 bitcoin. Interestingly, 0.1 bitcoin then cost about 400 dollars. For two days of work. I could write a page like this with my eyes closed. I've done it dozens of times for training demos. The cursor hovered over the REPLY button. Somewhere in the next room, my mother was quietly moaning in her sleep.
The painkillers were getting weaker and weaker, and there was less and less time left. I pressed Enter. What happened next changed not only my life, but also the lives of hundreds of innocent people. But more on that next time. Because some stories can't be told in a hurry. And this story... It deserves to be heard to the end. The criminal world is like cold water, at first it seems unbearable, but then you get used to it and don't want to go ashore.
My first customer went by the nickname Euroguest. He ordered a phishing kit for Bank of America via encrypted chat - an exact copy of a bank page for data theft. He transferred the prepayment immediately. I wrote the code for two days. Adaptive layout, perfect imitation of design, bypass of basic protections. Techniques from ethical hacking courses, only the goal was unethical.
Yura Gost was pleased. 0.1 bitcoin arrived in my wallet on March 12. Do you know what I felt? Not shame, relief. For the first time in a month, I could buy my mother's medicine without loans. A week later, Yura Gost offered a permanent job, we called each other via messenger. Eastern European accent, business tone. Need a technical specialist from the USA, $ 5,000 per month plus interest with surgery.
More than my mother earned in three months. Their group worked all over the world. Had access to personal databases. Could create synthetic personalities. I had to adapt European methods to American banks. "Where are the databases from?" I asked. We buy. Equifax, Experian, Target - all leaks are not accidental.
Behind each one are people who sell access. An entire ecosystem. Insiders in companies, hackers, data brokers. At that time, the personal data of 200 million plus Americans was in the public domain. "We're not the worst," Euroghost said. "We just redistribute money from banks to those who don't need it anymore. On March 20, I joined the group. The level of organization was amazing: its own IT infrastructure, tech support, even an HR department.
The first task was to study the security system of American banks. I spent a week analyzing Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank. I looked for vulnerabilities to exploit. The weakest link turned out to be people. All technical protections can be bypassed if you force a bank employee to do it for you. March 27, the first operation.
Target. David Miller, 67, a retiree from Florida. Data from the purchased database, name, address, SSN, mother's maiden name. I created a copy of the Bank of America page. Yura Ghost sent an SMS. Suspicious activity on the account. Verify your identity using the link. Miller entered all the data on my page. An hour later, Yura Gost called the bank, introduced himself as Miller, using number spoofing.
He gave all the data correctly. The employee restored access. There were $ 230 in the account. We transferred them to a dummy account. My share. $ 50. $ 50 for the stolen pension. That night I thought about Miller, imagined his horror when he discovered the theft. But then I thought about my mother, about her pain, about the fact that banks earn billions. By the morning, my conscience subsided.
We “tested” on small targets for three weeks. Students, pensioners, office workers - $ 100 from each. “By mid-April, I earned $ 3,000. For the first time, I was able to pay for my mother's full course of treatment,” he said that he received a grant for a startup. On April 15, Yura Gost wrote. “Are you ready for serious work? What do you mean? Big goals. Business accounts, investment accounts. From 10 thousand to 100 thousand dollars. But the risks are higher.
What risks? Banks are more attentive to large sums. The FBI is investigating more actively. Synthetic identities, fake documents, offshore companies are needed. Payment? 15% of the transaction. 50 thousand dollars, your 7500. More for one transaction than most people earn in a month. You need to think. There are no standing places in this business. You either grow or you fly out, and it is not a fact that it is safe.
On April 18, I wrote. I'm in. Once you cross the line, it is almost impossible to stop. Each step seems a logical continuation of the previous one. But what happened next exceeded all my expectations. I will tell you next time how far a person can go for love. Power corrupts. But digital power corrupts instantly.
When you can become anyone, with one click of the mouse, the line between reality and the game is erased forever. May 2019 was a turning point. Euroghost introduced me to the Architect, a mysterious guy who coordinated operations around the world. He spoke only through a distorted voice, met only in encrypted chats. "The Phantom is great at small things," Euroghost said.
It was time to move on to serious projects. The Architect explained a new scheme - synthetic personalities. People who exist only on paper, but have an impeccable credit history, bank accounts, even social media profiles. Creating such a "ghost" takes months, but allows you to get loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars. My job is technical infrastructure. Anti-detect browsers that imitate the behavior of a specific person on the network.
Digital fingerprint management systems. Automation of social networks to create believable online activity. "We need a team," the Architect said. "You will be the coordinator of the American direction. Find performers." On May 24, I posted an ad on Crime Talk. I am looking for programmers for a long-term project. Good pay, stable work, American specifics.
Responses came in within an hour. The first to respond was RedCode, a student from California, a specialist in web scraping and automation. The second was NightOwl, a girl from Texas, an expert in social engineering and phishing. The third was Zero7, a hacker from New York, a master at bypassing bank protections. The interview was conducted via video chat with voice distortion, asked technical questions, checked motivation, assessed risks.
In the criminal world, you can't trust anyone, but without a team, large operations are impossible. By the end of May, I had a group of four people. We communicated via encrypted telegram, met in virtual reality, used code names even among ourselves. The first major operation was a medical clinic in Denton, Texas. Night Owl found a vulnerability in their electronic medical record system.
An outdated server, weak admin passwords, no modern security. On June 7, we gained access to a database of 15,000 patient records. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, insurance policies, income information, marital status, and medical history. A gold mine for creating synthetic personalities. Redcode wrote a script to automatically process the data.
We were looking for the perfect profiles. Middle-aged people with good incomes, minimal medical problems, and stable family situations. These are the easiest profiles to clone. We chose 10 targets. Created a full digital profile for each. Social media accounts. Email addresses. Purchase history. Internet activity.
Zero7 developed a system of IP rotation to simulate the geographic movements of each person. The most difficult part was creating a credit history. The synthetic identity had to exist for at least six months before banks would start considering credit applications. It was necessary to show regular income, timely payments, and reasonable financial behavior. The architect provided access to a network of shell companies across the country.
Officially registered firms that existed only on paper, but had tax reporting and could issue income certificates. Our synthetic personalities worked in these companies, received a salary, paid taxes. By August, we had 5 ready-made profiles with a credit rating above 700. Time to act. 1. The first target is James Anderson, 34, a programmer from Austin. According to the documents, he earned $ 85 thousand a year, rented an apartment, had a car loan, regularly used credit cards.
A model borrower. On August 15, James applied for a personal loan at Wells Farga for $45,000. He stated the purpose as buying a car and renovating a house. The bank approved the application in 24 hours. A week later, the money arrived in the account of a shell company in Delaware, from there in cryptocurrency, then through a network of exchangers to our wallets.
My share was $6,750. In the first month, we pumped out $180,000 from five banks. American Express, Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Capital One. All transactions went without a hitch. The architect was delighted. Phantom, you exceeded expectations. Your team works like a Swiss watch.
What's next? Scaling? We have orders for $2 million, but we will need more people, more synthetic personalities, more technical power. By September, my team has grown to 12 people, programmers, designers, social engineers, money launderers. We rented servers in different countries, created our own VPN network, developed a system for automatically creating fake profiles.
The money was flowing. On good days, I earned from 10 to 15 thousand dollars. Up to 200 thousand dollars a month. More than top managers of large corporations earned. Mom was getting better. The best doctors, experimental treatments, expensive drugs - everything became available. I rented an apartment for her in a good area, hired a nurse, paid for a year-long rehabilitation program.
But money changed not only our lives. It changed me. I no longer thought about the victims. The people whose data we stole turned into abstract numbers. Banks - into opponents, in an intellectual game. Fraud - into technical creativity. I began to be paranoid. I changed laptops every month, used only disposable phones, slept in different places. Even communicated with the team through multiple proxies and encryption.
In October, Yura Ghost warned, “Phantom, you’re becoming too visible. The FBI has a department that specializes in our type of fraud. They’ve already linked several operations. How is that possible? Your team is too big. Someone is talking too much, someone is leaving digital traces. The larger the operation, the greater the risk of being exposed.”
He was right. October 23. Zero7 sent an alarming message. “My computer was scanned. Someone may be watching.” A day later, Redcoat reported that his neighbors were asking strange questions about his work. The architect ordered all operations to be suspended. The team to be disbanded. Digital traces to be destroyed. “Is this temporary?” I asked. I don’t know. Maybe it’s time to change specialization. Or geography. On October 25, I sent my last message to my team.
The project is closed. Thank you all for your work. Take care of yourself. That night, I sat in a rented apartment in Detroit, staring at my laptop screen and realized – the game is over. In six months, we stole almost $3 million. I made more money than most people ever see in a lifetime, but the price was too high. And the scary thing is, I wanted to keep going. But that’s in the last part.
About what happens when, you know, there’s no turning back. You know what the worst part of this story is? It’s not that I could get caught, it’s that I couldn’t stop. November 2019 was the end. The team was disbanded, operations were frozen, but the paranoia was eating me up from the inside. I was changing hotels every 2 days, buying new laptops, using only cash. Every passerby could be an agent, every camera a trap. On
November 14th, the worst happened. Knightwell was missing. The last message came on the 13th at 11:47 PM. I think I’m in trouble. By the way, I don’t know anyone. Since then, silence. Three days later, Red Code sent a link to a news report from Los Angeles. A young woman has been arrested on suspicion of cyber fraud. The photo is blurry, the name is not given, but the age is correct.
My heart was pounding like crazy, if they caught her, they could have caught the others too. And if someone talks... I destroyed all remaining traces within 24 hours. I burned laptops, threw away phones, closed bank accounts. Transferred bitcoins to cold wallets that are in no way connected to my identity. Eurogost contacted me on November 18. The situation is critical, they may have our correspondence. I recommend changing location immediately. Where? Eastern Europe, South America, Southeast Asia.
The main thing is where there are no extradition treaties. And mom... A long pause. Phantom, you understand, either freedom or family. There is no third option. That night I sat in a cheap hotel near Cleveland and thought about the choice. Run? It means leaving my mother alone with an illness. Stay, risk twenty years in prison. On November 20th I bought a ticket to Mexico City.
In cash. Using fake documents. The bag contained $50,000 in cash and a flash drive with access to 200 bitcoins. About two million dollars. I wrote to my mother at the airport. Urgent business trip. For about two months? The money is in your account, the treatment is paid for a year in advance. I love you. She responded in five minutes. “Take care, son. I'm proud of you.” If only she knew... In Mexico, everything turned out to be simpler than expected. I bought new documents for $10,000. A visa to Panama for $20,000.
The architect connected me with local colleagues. I rented a house in the suburbs of Panama City. Officially, the investor from the US lives on income from securities. But the money did not bring happiness. Every night I woke up in a sweat, I dreamed of victims, pensioners, students, families. I dreamed of my mother, dying alone in the hospital. I tried to quit. Bought a legitimate IT company that made websites for local firms.
Hired programmers, an accountant. Played the role of an honest entrepreneur. But the temptation was stronger. In March 2020, when the world plunged into the chaos of the pandemic, I broke down. Banks relaxed checks. People took out loans en masse. The government handed out subsidies. The perfect time to come back. Created a new team. Local hackers, European contacts, American insiders. In six months, we mastered $ 5 million.
My share was $ 1.2 million. But the reckoning was approaching. July 2021. A call from EuroGhost:
- "Phantom, we have big problems."
- "What happened?"
Nightwhale spoke. "A deal with the prosecutor's office." She handed over everyone she knew. The world collapsed in one second.
- "What did she know about me?"
- "Enough. Names. Schemes. Amounts. They have already frozen some of your old accounts."
- "How long?"
- "Maybe a month. Maybe a week."
An international warrant is already being prepared. I closed the company in 3 days. Sold the house, the car, all the property. Transferred assets to anonymous crypto wallets. Bought a new identity in Southeast Asia. For the last 2 years, I have been living as a ghost. I change countries every 3-4 months. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines.
Always cash, always new documents. Always one question. Will they find me today? January 12, 2022, my mother died. I found out from the obituary in the local newspaper. The cancer had returned, metastasized, two months of fighting. She was alone. I couldn't even fly to the funeral. The money that was supposed to save her became the reason that I could not be there in her last days.
That's the whole irony. Now I have about 8 million dollars in various assets. Enough for a comfortable life until the end of days, but every dollar is soaked in the blood of innocent people, every bill is someone's ruined life. The architect still gets in touch once every six months. Phantom, there's an interesting project. Need your experience. The amounts he names are astronomical. But I don't answer anymore. Not because I feel remorse, I'm just tired of running.
Tired of being a nobody. Tired of waking up thinking that this is my last day of freedom. I am writing this story in an internet cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. Tomorrow I am flying to Jakarta, the day after – even further. This will continue until I am found or die of a heart attack in yet another rented apartment. My biggest mistake was thinking that I was in control, that I could enter the criminal world, take what I needed and leave again.
But crime works on the principle of “only there”. Every night I ask myself “would I have pressed Enter then if I had known the price?” The honest answer is I don’t know. For my mother’s sake – maybe yes. And you? If your loved one was dying, and the only way to save him lay on the wrong side of the law, what would you do? Stop at the first theft or take it a step further? I know what I did, and I pay the price of this knowledge every day.
The story of Phantom ended as uncertainly as it began – with an unanswered question. In just a few days, his post had collected hundreds of comments from Crime Talk users, some sharing similar stories of financial despair, others arguing about the moral boundaries of cybercrime, others analyzing the technical details of the schemes, but Phantom himself was never seen on the forum again, the last time he visited was 5 days after the publication, he responded to several comments in monosyllables and disappeared.
Maybe he found peace in his confession, or maybe he realized that some questions are better left unanswered. This story struck me not by the technical details. Most of the methods described are well known in the field of cybersecurity. What struck me was the transformation of a man who started with a desire to help a loved one and ended up living a life of constant flight.
And the most frightening thing is that he does not fully repent, he only methodically analyzes the cost of his decisions. Phantom asked questions that have no easy answers. Where is the line between necessity and greed? Does a noble goal justify criminal means if the victims remain abstract numbers? And most importantly. Is it possible to stop when crime becomes the only world you know?
History shows how thin the line is between being a victim of the system and being an exploiter. American medicine ruins families with astronomical bills, banks profit from people's misfortunes, and students are left without work because of experience requirements. In such a system, crime may seem like the only way out, but the choice is always up to the individual. Phantom could have stopped after the first $3,000 that was enough for his mother's treatment. He could have left after successful operations in May 2019.
He could have never returned to crime in Panama. Each time, he chose to continue. Think about this the next time you encounter the injustice of the system. What price are you willing to pay for justice? And where is the line, having crossed which you stop being a victim and become part of the problem. Have a nice evening and see you soon in the dark corners of the web that we explore together.
How does the shadow industry of fake identities work? Who are the “architects” of bank fraud? And why are computer science students increasingly becoming part of the cybercriminal world?
This topic tells the shocking story of Phantom, an aspiring programmer who stepped beyond the law to save his mother and found himself in the thick of the darknet. From the first phishing page to the creation of synthetic identities with an impeccable credit history. We will tell you in detail how schemes for obtaining loans in someone else's name actually work, how hackers exploit data leaks, and what loopholes in the system allow you to “suck” millions from banks around the world.
This is not a manual, but a documentary analysis of a criminal scheme that shocked even darknet veterans. The story is based on a real post from the CrimeTalk forum from December 2022. The story of Phantom is a chronicle of moral degradation, emotional burnout, and the price one pays for trying to save a loved one.
Important: All video information is for educational purposes only. We do not promote or encourage any illegal activity. We encourage all viewers to respect the law and exercise utmost caution online.Contents:
- What are synthetic personalities and how are they created?
- Why Equifax and Experian Leaks Fuel Crime
- How Fake Online Lives Are Built With 700+ Credit Score
- How Hackers Bypass US Banking Systems
- Why Even Moral Justification Can Lead to Life on the Run
Hello everyone. Today I present to you a story I found on the closed Crime Talk forum in the archive for December 2022. This is the confession of a man known as Phantom, a computer science student who went from being an ordinary guy to one of America's most wanted cybercriminals. This story began with the most noble intentions, a young programmer trying to save his dying mother.
Medical bills for tens of thousands of dollars, insurance company rejections, unanswered resumes. A reality familiar to many Americans, where the choice is between bankruptcy and the loss of a loved one. But what happens when desperation meets technical skills and access to the dark web? Phantom showed us how thin the line is between a victim of circumstances and the organizer of a criminal empire.
In a year and a half, he went from stealing $230 from a pensioner to running an international network robbing banks of millions of dollars. The Phantom story is not just a story about bank fraud. This is the anatomy of moral degradation in the digital age. Here you will see how modern schemes with synthetic personalities work, how hackers bypass banking security systems, how criminal teams are built on the Darknet.
But most importantly, you will see the price a person pays when he crosses the line between law and crime. The ending of this story is especially frightening. The Phantom got what he fought for - money for his mother's treatment. But when she was dying, he could not be there, hiding from the international search. The irony of fate. Saving one life, he destroyed hundreds of others, including his own. The post was published on December 27, 2022 at 3:42 am.
Since then, the author has not been in touch. Sit back and get ready for a journey into the mind of a man who proved. In the modern world, any programming student can become a millionaire. The only question is what price he is willing to pay for it.
Do you know what the scariest thing in this story is? It's not that I stole millions, it's not that I ruined the lives of hundreds of people. It's that if I had to choose again, I would do the same. Call me Phantom. My last year was computer science at one of the universities in Chicago. Until February 2019, I was an ordinary student. I wrote code, participated in CTF competitions, dreamed of an internship at Google. My GitHub was filled with cybersecurity projects.
I even wrote a couple of pentesting tools that were used at the university. A white hat hacker, as they say. I lived with my mother in a small apartment on the South Side. I don't remember my father. He left when I was seven. My mother worked as a nurse at Northwestern Memorial, she could support both of us on one salary. I worked part-time wherever I could, fixed computers for neighbors, made websites for local stores, freelanced on Upwork, pennies, but enough for food and tuition.
Until that day. February 21, 2019. Thursday. I remember every detail, because it was the day my life was divided into before and after. I was sitting in the university library, finishing a term paper on machine learning, when the phone rang. “Son.” My mother’s voice was shaking. “I need to talk to you.”
“Come home.” I knew. The tone, the pauses, the words. I just knew it was bad. Really bad. Breast cancer. Stage 3, discovered by accident during a routine checkup. The doctor said something about chemotherapy, radiation, surgery. All I heard were numbers. $80,000 for treatment, minimum, no guarantees. “Insurance will cover the basics,” the doctor said.
“But additional procedures, experimental methods — that’s up to you. Insurance covered $15,000. The rest is our problem.” The nurse at the public hospital didn’t have $65,000. The same goes for the student programmer. I spent the next two weeks rushing around like crazy. I applied for every vacancy in a row. From a junior developer to technical support. The answers were the same.
Thank you for your interest. But we are looking for a candidate with experience. Experience. I had experience writing exploits for educational purposes. Experience hacking test systems. Experience creating phishing pages for cybersecurity demonstrations. But this is not the experience that HR managers were interested in. Banks refused to give me a loan, a student without a regular income - my mother's bad credit history. GoFundMe raised $ 3,000 in a month - a drop in the ocean.
And time went by, every day the doctor repeated - the sooner we start treatment, the higher the chances. March 7, 2019. Friday evening. Mom went to bed after another course of painkillers, and I sat at the computer and stupidly stared at the screen. The clinic page with treatment prices was open in the browser - 80 thousand dollars. For us, this was an astronomical amount.
And then I remembered a conversation with my classmate Mike. A month ago, he bragged about making $2,000 in a week on one project. When I asked which one, he smiled mysteriously and said, "There are places on the Internet that pay much more for our skills. I didn't pay attention to it then. Now Mike's words sounded different. I downloaded the Tor browser. It's scary to go to the Darknet for the first time. Not because of the technical complexity, I understood perfectly well how onion networks work.
It was scary to realize that I was crossing the line. That I was looking for ways to make money where legal ways do not exist. But when you choose between morality and your mother's life, the choice is obvious. The first sites I found sold drugs, weapons, fake documents. I was not interested in this. I was looking for something related to technology, hacking, and found Crime Talk - one of the largest forums for specialists in our field.
To register, you had to pass a technical test. The questions were serious - from the basics of cryptography to practical tasks in social engineering. I did it in two hours. The first thing that caught my eye was the "Vacancies" section. They were looking for programmers to write malware, social engineering specialists, experts in bypassing banking security systems.
Salaries were indicated in bitcoins, but even after converting them to dollars, the amounts were impressive. From five hundred to a thousand dollars for simple tasks. From five thousand to ten thousand dollars for complex projects. For one project, you could earn more than my mother did in six months of work in a hospital. I created a profile and indicated my skills. Python, JavaScript, network security, social engineering. An hour later, the first offer came. We need a person to write a simple fish kit.
Imitation of the Bank of America page. Payment - 0.1 bitcoin. Interestingly, 0.1 bitcoin then cost about 400 dollars. For two days of work. I could write a page like this with my eyes closed. I've done it dozens of times for training demos. The cursor hovered over the REPLY button. Somewhere in the next room, my mother was quietly moaning in her sleep.
The painkillers were getting weaker and weaker, and there was less and less time left. I pressed Enter. What happened next changed not only my life, but also the lives of hundreds of innocent people. But more on that next time. Because some stories can't be told in a hurry. And this story... It deserves to be heard to the end. The criminal world is like cold water, at first it seems unbearable, but then you get used to it and don't want to go ashore.
My first customer went by the nickname Euroguest. He ordered a phishing kit for Bank of America via encrypted chat - an exact copy of a bank page for data theft. He transferred the prepayment immediately. I wrote the code for two days. Adaptive layout, perfect imitation of design, bypass of basic protections. Techniques from ethical hacking courses, only the goal was unethical.
Yura Gost was pleased. 0.1 bitcoin arrived in my wallet on March 12. Do you know what I felt? Not shame, relief. For the first time in a month, I could buy my mother's medicine without loans. A week later, Yura Gost offered a permanent job, we called each other via messenger. Eastern European accent, business tone. Need a technical specialist from the USA, $ 5,000 per month plus interest with surgery.
More than my mother earned in three months. Their group worked all over the world. Had access to personal databases. Could create synthetic personalities. I had to adapt European methods to American banks. "Where are the databases from?" I asked. We buy. Equifax, Experian, Target - all leaks are not accidental.
Behind each one are people who sell access. An entire ecosystem. Insiders in companies, hackers, data brokers. At that time, the personal data of 200 million plus Americans was in the public domain. "We're not the worst," Euroghost said. "We just redistribute money from banks to those who don't need it anymore. On March 20, I joined the group. The level of organization was amazing: its own IT infrastructure, tech support, even an HR department.
The first task was to study the security system of American banks. I spent a week analyzing Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank. I looked for vulnerabilities to exploit. The weakest link turned out to be people. All technical protections can be bypassed if you force a bank employee to do it for you. March 27, the first operation.
Target. David Miller, 67, a retiree from Florida. Data from the purchased database, name, address, SSN, mother's maiden name. I created a copy of the Bank of America page. Yura Ghost sent an SMS. Suspicious activity on the account. Verify your identity using the link. Miller entered all the data on my page. An hour later, Yura Gost called the bank, introduced himself as Miller, using number spoofing.
He gave all the data correctly. The employee restored access. There were $ 230 in the account. We transferred them to a dummy account. My share. $ 50. $ 50 for the stolen pension. That night I thought about Miller, imagined his horror when he discovered the theft. But then I thought about my mother, about her pain, about the fact that banks earn billions. By the morning, my conscience subsided.
We “tested” on small targets for three weeks. Students, pensioners, office workers - $ 100 from each. “By mid-April, I earned $ 3,000. For the first time, I was able to pay for my mother's full course of treatment,” he said that he received a grant for a startup. On April 15, Yura Gost wrote. “Are you ready for serious work? What do you mean? Big goals. Business accounts, investment accounts. From 10 thousand to 100 thousand dollars. But the risks are higher.
What risks? Banks are more attentive to large sums. The FBI is investigating more actively. Synthetic identities, fake documents, offshore companies are needed. Payment? 15% of the transaction. 50 thousand dollars, your 7500. More for one transaction than most people earn in a month. You need to think. There are no standing places in this business. You either grow or you fly out, and it is not a fact that it is safe.
On April 18, I wrote. I'm in. Once you cross the line, it is almost impossible to stop. Each step seems a logical continuation of the previous one. But what happened next exceeded all my expectations. I will tell you next time how far a person can go for love. Power corrupts. But digital power corrupts instantly.
When you can become anyone, with one click of the mouse, the line between reality and the game is erased forever. May 2019 was a turning point. Euroghost introduced me to the Architect, a mysterious guy who coordinated operations around the world. He spoke only through a distorted voice, met only in encrypted chats. "The Phantom is great at small things," Euroghost said.
It was time to move on to serious projects. The Architect explained a new scheme - synthetic personalities. People who exist only on paper, but have an impeccable credit history, bank accounts, even social media profiles. Creating such a "ghost" takes months, but allows you to get loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars. My job is technical infrastructure. Anti-detect browsers that imitate the behavior of a specific person on the network.
Digital fingerprint management systems. Automation of social networks to create believable online activity. "We need a team," the Architect said. "You will be the coordinator of the American direction. Find performers." On May 24, I posted an ad on Crime Talk. I am looking for programmers for a long-term project. Good pay, stable work, American specifics.
Responses came in within an hour. The first to respond was RedCode, a student from California, a specialist in web scraping and automation. The second was NightOwl, a girl from Texas, an expert in social engineering and phishing. The third was Zero7, a hacker from New York, a master at bypassing bank protections. The interview was conducted via video chat with voice distortion, asked technical questions, checked motivation, assessed risks.
In the criminal world, you can't trust anyone, but without a team, large operations are impossible. By the end of May, I had a group of four people. We communicated via encrypted telegram, met in virtual reality, used code names even among ourselves. The first major operation was a medical clinic in Denton, Texas. Night Owl found a vulnerability in their electronic medical record system.
An outdated server, weak admin passwords, no modern security. On June 7, we gained access to a database of 15,000 patient records. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, insurance policies, income information, marital status, and medical history. A gold mine for creating synthetic personalities. Redcode wrote a script to automatically process the data.
We were looking for the perfect profiles. Middle-aged people with good incomes, minimal medical problems, and stable family situations. These are the easiest profiles to clone. We chose 10 targets. Created a full digital profile for each. Social media accounts. Email addresses. Purchase history. Internet activity.
Zero7 developed a system of IP rotation to simulate the geographic movements of each person. The most difficult part was creating a credit history. The synthetic identity had to exist for at least six months before banks would start considering credit applications. It was necessary to show regular income, timely payments, and reasonable financial behavior. The architect provided access to a network of shell companies across the country.
Officially registered firms that existed only on paper, but had tax reporting and could issue income certificates. Our synthetic personalities worked in these companies, received a salary, paid taxes. By August, we had 5 ready-made profiles with a credit rating above 700. Time to act. 1. The first target is James Anderson, 34, a programmer from Austin. According to the documents, he earned $ 85 thousand a year, rented an apartment, had a car loan, regularly used credit cards.
A model borrower. On August 15, James applied for a personal loan at Wells Farga for $45,000. He stated the purpose as buying a car and renovating a house. The bank approved the application in 24 hours. A week later, the money arrived in the account of a shell company in Delaware, from there in cryptocurrency, then through a network of exchangers to our wallets.
My share was $6,750. In the first month, we pumped out $180,000 from five banks. American Express, Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Capital One. All transactions went without a hitch. The architect was delighted. Phantom, you exceeded expectations. Your team works like a Swiss watch.
What's next? Scaling? We have orders for $2 million, but we will need more people, more synthetic personalities, more technical power. By September, my team has grown to 12 people, programmers, designers, social engineers, money launderers. We rented servers in different countries, created our own VPN network, developed a system for automatically creating fake profiles.
The money was flowing. On good days, I earned from 10 to 15 thousand dollars. Up to 200 thousand dollars a month. More than top managers of large corporations earned. Mom was getting better. The best doctors, experimental treatments, expensive drugs - everything became available. I rented an apartment for her in a good area, hired a nurse, paid for a year-long rehabilitation program.
But money changed not only our lives. It changed me. I no longer thought about the victims. The people whose data we stole turned into abstract numbers. Banks - into opponents, in an intellectual game. Fraud - into technical creativity. I began to be paranoid. I changed laptops every month, used only disposable phones, slept in different places. Even communicated with the team through multiple proxies and encryption.
In October, Yura Ghost warned, “Phantom, you’re becoming too visible. The FBI has a department that specializes in our type of fraud. They’ve already linked several operations. How is that possible? Your team is too big. Someone is talking too much, someone is leaving digital traces. The larger the operation, the greater the risk of being exposed.”
He was right. October 23. Zero7 sent an alarming message. “My computer was scanned. Someone may be watching.” A day later, Redcoat reported that his neighbors were asking strange questions about his work. The architect ordered all operations to be suspended. The team to be disbanded. Digital traces to be destroyed. “Is this temporary?” I asked. I don’t know. Maybe it’s time to change specialization. Or geography. On October 25, I sent my last message to my team.
The project is closed. Thank you all for your work. Take care of yourself. That night, I sat in a rented apartment in Detroit, staring at my laptop screen and realized – the game is over. In six months, we stole almost $3 million. I made more money than most people ever see in a lifetime, but the price was too high. And the scary thing is, I wanted to keep going. But that’s in the last part.
About what happens when, you know, there’s no turning back. You know what the worst part of this story is? It’s not that I could get caught, it’s that I couldn’t stop. November 2019 was the end. The team was disbanded, operations were frozen, but the paranoia was eating me up from the inside. I was changing hotels every 2 days, buying new laptops, using only cash. Every passerby could be an agent, every camera a trap. On
November 14th, the worst happened. Knightwell was missing. The last message came on the 13th at 11:47 PM. I think I’m in trouble. By the way, I don’t know anyone. Since then, silence. Three days later, Red Code sent a link to a news report from Los Angeles. A young woman has been arrested on suspicion of cyber fraud. The photo is blurry, the name is not given, but the age is correct.
My heart was pounding like crazy, if they caught her, they could have caught the others too. And if someone talks... I destroyed all remaining traces within 24 hours. I burned laptops, threw away phones, closed bank accounts. Transferred bitcoins to cold wallets that are in no way connected to my identity. Eurogost contacted me on November 18. The situation is critical, they may have our correspondence. I recommend changing location immediately. Where? Eastern Europe, South America, Southeast Asia.
The main thing is where there are no extradition treaties. And mom... A long pause. Phantom, you understand, either freedom or family. There is no third option. That night I sat in a cheap hotel near Cleveland and thought about the choice. Run? It means leaving my mother alone with an illness. Stay, risk twenty years in prison. On November 20th I bought a ticket to Mexico City.
In cash. Using fake documents. The bag contained $50,000 in cash and a flash drive with access to 200 bitcoins. About two million dollars. I wrote to my mother at the airport. Urgent business trip. For about two months? The money is in your account, the treatment is paid for a year in advance. I love you. She responded in five minutes. “Take care, son. I'm proud of you.” If only she knew... In Mexico, everything turned out to be simpler than expected. I bought new documents for $10,000. A visa to Panama for $20,000.
The architect connected me with local colleagues. I rented a house in the suburbs of Panama City. Officially, the investor from the US lives on income from securities. But the money did not bring happiness. Every night I woke up in a sweat, I dreamed of victims, pensioners, students, families. I dreamed of my mother, dying alone in the hospital. I tried to quit. Bought a legitimate IT company that made websites for local firms.
Hired programmers, an accountant. Played the role of an honest entrepreneur. But the temptation was stronger. In March 2020, when the world plunged into the chaos of the pandemic, I broke down. Banks relaxed checks. People took out loans en masse. The government handed out subsidies. The perfect time to come back. Created a new team. Local hackers, European contacts, American insiders. In six months, we mastered $ 5 million.
My share was $ 1.2 million. But the reckoning was approaching. July 2021. A call from EuroGhost:
- "Phantom, we have big problems."
- "What happened?"
Nightwhale spoke. "A deal with the prosecutor's office." She handed over everyone she knew. The world collapsed in one second.
- "What did she know about me?"
- "Enough. Names. Schemes. Amounts. They have already frozen some of your old accounts."
- "How long?"
- "Maybe a month. Maybe a week."
An international warrant is already being prepared. I closed the company in 3 days. Sold the house, the car, all the property. Transferred assets to anonymous crypto wallets. Bought a new identity in Southeast Asia. For the last 2 years, I have been living as a ghost. I change countries every 3-4 months. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines.
Always cash, always new documents. Always one question. Will they find me today? January 12, 2022, my mother died. I found out from the obituary in the local newspaper. The cancer had returned, metastasized, two months of fighting. She was alone. I couldn't even fly to the funeral. The money that was supposed to save her became the reason that I could not be there in her last days.
That's the whole irony. Now I have about 8 million dollars in various assets. Enough for a comfortable life until the end of days, but every dollar is soaked in the blood of innocent people, every bill is someone's ruined life. The architect still gets in touch once every six months. Phantom, there's an interesting project. Need your experience. The amounts he names are astronomical. But I don't answer anymore. Not because I feel remorse, I'm just tired of running.
Tired of being a nobody. Tired of waking up thinking that this is my last day of freedom. I am writing this story in an internet cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. Tomorrow I am flying to Jakarta, the day after – even further. This will continue until I am found or die of a heart attack in yet another rented apartment. My biggest mistake was thinking that I was in control, that I could enter the criminal world, take what I needed and leave again.
But crime works on the principle of “only there”. Every night I ask myself “would I have pressed Enter then if I had known the price?” The honest answer is I don’t know. For my mother’s sake – maybe yes. And you? If your loved one was dying, and the only way to save him lay on the wrong side of the law, what would you do? Stop at the first theft or take it a step further? I know what I did, and I pay the price of this knowledge every day.
The story of Phantom ended as uncertainly as it began – with an unanswered question. In just a few days, his post had collected hundreds of comments from Crime Talk users, some sharing similar stories of financial despair, others arguing about the moral boundaries of cybercrime, others analyzing the technical details of the schemes, but Phantom himself was never seen on the forum again, the last time he visited was 5 days after the publication, he responded to several comments in monosyllables and disappeared.
Maybe he found peace in his confession, or maybe he realized that some questions are better left unanswered. This story struck me not by the technical details. Most of the methods described are well known in the field of cybersecurity. What struck me was the transformation of a man who started with a desire to help a loved one and ended up living a life of constant flight.
And the most frightening thing is that he does not fully repent, he only methodically analyzes the cost of his decisions. Phantom asked questions that have no easy answers. Where is the line between necessity and greed? Does a noble goal justify criminal means if the victims remain abstract numbers? And most importantly. Is it possible to stop when crime becomes the only world you know?
History shows how thin the line is between being a victim of the system and being an exploiter. American medicine ruins families with astronomical bills, banks profit from people's misfortunes, and students are left without work because of experience requirements. In such a system, crime may seem like the only way out, but the choice is always up to the individual. Phantom could have stopped after the first $3,000 that was enough for his mother's treatment. He could have left after successful operations in May 2019.
He could have never returned to crime in Panama. Each time, he chose to continue. Think about this the next time you encounter the injustice of the system. What price are you willing to pay for justice? And where is the line, having crossed which you stop being a victim and become part of the problem. Have a nice evening and see you soon in the dark corners of the web that we explore together.
