American law enforcement officers eliminated the SSNDOB marketplace, where they sold personal data about 24 million inhabitants of the United States: names, social insurance numbers and date of birth.
The removal of four domains associated with SSNDOB (SSNDOB.WS, SSNDOB.VIP, SSNDOB.Club and Blackjob.biz) was the result of the joint operation of the FBI, the tax service and the US Department of Justice with the support of the Cyprus police. The fact is that the trading platform consisted of several mirror sites, which previously helped attackers to defend themselves from DDOS attacks and law enforcement agencies.
As mentioned above, Marketplais sold personal data to everyone (mainly US citizens), including social insurance numbers and date of birth, taking bitcoins as payment. According to the American Ministry of Justice, over the years, the sale of data brought the resource operators more than 19 million US dollars.
Specialists of the IB company Advanced Intel write that most of the information on SSNDOB was obtained during leaks related to hospitals and companies working in the field of healthcare. Basically, the attackers who acquired this data used it for financial fraud.
“Ssndob was one of the largest criminal marketplaces offering personal data sets for scammers, and he played an integral role in fraudulent schemes. Most customers used [acquired] information for various types of tax fraud to banking, ”says Vitaly Kremin, head of Advanced Intel. “According to several Advintel investigations, the criminals standing at this trading platform specially used the databases received after hacking organizations from the healthcare sector and hospitals to collect personal information for their canor customers.”
Meanwhile, Chainalysis specialists managed to track $ 22 million in bitcoins, which SSNDOB operators "earned" since April 2015. Some of these transactions were quite large (100,000 US dollars and higher), that is, some criminals purchased data in bulk.
Also, Chainalysis experts say that they discovered an interesting connection between SSNDOB and the Carder trading platform Joker’s Stash, which closed in January 2021.
“In the period from December 2018 to June 2019, Ssndob sent Joker's Stash bitcoins worth more than $ 100,000. Probably, these marketplaces could have something to do with each other. It is possible that they were even owned by the same people,” analysts write.
Ukrainian hacker admitted to the sale of personal data of American citizens
Vitaliy Chichasov was the administrator of the Ssndob Marketplace, which generated more than $ 19 million in profit.
Ukrainian Vitaly Chichasov, who is currently in the United States, found himself guilty of conspiracy to make fraud using access and trade devices for unauthorized access devices through a special closed area.
Chichasov was the administrator of the Ssndob MarketPlace, a series of sites that sold personal information of American citizens, including their complete names, date of birth and social insurance numbers.
The operation of law enforcement agencies led to the seizure of Marketplais domains on June 7, 2022. During his work, SSNDOB managed to sell 24 million people, having received a profit from sales of more than 19 million dollars.
“Stolen social insurance numbers can be used to perform various types of fraud, including tax fraud, unemployment allowance, fraud with loans, credit cards, etc.,” the US Department of Justice (Doj) said.
Chichasov was arrested in March 2022, when he tried to enter Hungary, and then was extracted in the United States in July of the same year. Together with the guilt, he also agreed to convey the domains “Blackjob.biz”, “Ssndob.club” and “Ssndob.vip”, which were used to commit crimes. The second administrator SSNDOB, Sergey Pugach, was also arrested in May 2022.
The US authorities identified two administrators thanks to the investigation conducted by the IRS and FBI cybercrime service with the support of the US Department of Justice, as well as the Latvia and Cyprus authorities.
From court documents it follows that administrators advertised SSNDOB through ads that they created on various sites in the dark network (other dark marketplaces and hacker forums).
In order to prevent the authorities from identifying themselves, administrators received payment only in difficult to enter the cryptocurrency and placed servers for the site in strategically selected places around the world.
Chichasov is now facing the maximum punishment of imprisonment up to 15 years and confiscation of money in the amount of $ 5 million, which, according to preliminary data, are criminal income.
The removal of four domains associated with SSNDOB (SSNDOB.WS, SSNDOB.VIP, SSNDOB.Club and Blackjob.biz) was the result of the joint operation of the FBI, the tax service and the US Department of Justice with the support of the Cyprus police. The fact is that the trading platform consisted of several mirror sites, which previously helped attackers to defend themselves from DDOS attacks and law enforcement agencies.
As mentioned above, Marketplais sold personal data to everyone (mainly US citizens), including social insurance numbers and date of birth, taking bitcoins as payment. According to the American Ministry of Justice, over the years, the sale of data brought the resource operators more than 19 million US dollars.
Specialists of the IB company Advanced Intel write that most of the information on SSNDOB was obtained during leaks related to hospitals and companies working in the field of healthcare. Basically, the attackers who acquired this data used it for financial fraud.
“Ssndob was one of the largest criminal marketplaces offering personal data sets for scammers, and he played an integral role in fraudulent schemes. Most customers used [acquired] information for various types of tax fraud to banking, ”says Vitaly Kremin, head of Advanced Intel. “According to several Advintel investigations, the criminals standing at this trading platform specially used the databases received after hacking organizations from the healthcare sector and hospitals to collect personal information for their canor customers.”
Meanwhile, Chainalysis specialists managed to track $ 22 million in bitcoins, which SSNDOB operators "earned" since April 2015. Some of these transactions were quite large (100,000 US dollars and higher), that is, some criminals purchased data in bulk.
Also, Chainalysis experts say that they discovered an interesting connection between SSNDOB and the Carder trading platform Joker’s Stash, which closed in January 2021.
“In the period from December 2018 to June 2019, Ssndob sent Joker's Stash bitcoins worth more than $ 100,000. Probably, these marketplaces could have something to do with each other. It is possible that they were even owned by the same people,” analysts write.
Ukrainian hacker admitted to the sale of personal data of American citizens
Vitaliy Chichasov was the administrator of the Ssndob Marketplace, which generated more than $ 19 million in profit.
Ukrainian Vitaly Chichasov, who is currently in the United States, found himself guilty of conspiracy to make fraud using access and trade devices for unauthorized access devices through a special closed area.
Chichasov was the administrator of the Ssndob MarketPlace, a series of sites that sold personal information of American citizens, including their complete names, date of birth and social insurance numbers.
The operation of law enforcement agencies led to the seizure of Marketplais domains on June 7, 2022. During his work, SSNDOB managed to sell 24 million people, having received a profit from sales of more than 19 million dollars.
“Stolen social insurance numbers can be used to perform various types of fraud, including tax fraud, unemployment allowance, fraud with loans, credit cards, etc.,” the US Department of Justice (Doj) said.
Chichasov was arrested in March 2022, when he tried to enter Hungary, and then was extracted in the United States in July of the same year. Together with the guilt, he also agreed to convey the domains “Blackjob.biz”, “Ssndob.club” and “Ssndob.vip”, which were used to commit crimes. The second administrator SSNDOB, Sergey Pugach, was also arrested in May 2022.
The US authorities identified two administrators thanks to the investigation conducted by the IRS and FBI cybercrime service with the support of the US Department of Justice, as well as the Latvia and Cyprus authorities.
From court documents it follows that administrators advertised SSNDOB through ads that they created on various sites in the dark network (other dark marketplaces and hacker forums).
In order to prevent the authorities from identifying themselves, administrators received payment only in difficult to enter the cryptocurrency and placed servers for the site in strategically selected places around the world.
Chichasov is now facing the maximum punishment of imprisonment up to 15 years and confiscation of money in the amount of $ 5 million, which, according to preliminary data, are criminal income.
