The US Department of Justice this week announced the seizure of PopeyeTools, a marketplace for trading stolen credit card information, and charges against three of its administrators.
PopeyeTools, DoJ announced, was disrupted after the US legally seized its .com, .co.uk, and .to domains that facilitated access to the marketplace.
According to court documents, in or around 2016, PopeyeTools was already a significant online marketplace for trading financial information and tools that allowed miscreants to carry out cybercrime and fraud activities.
Users of the illicit portal had access to stolen bank account, credit card, and debit card numbers, and to additional information that facilitated conducting fraudulent transactions.
The marketplace, the court documents reveal, had thousands of users worldwide, including individuals associated with ransomware attacks.
Since inception, PopeyeTools is estimated to have offered for sale the personally identifiable information (PII) of more than 227,000 individuals and to have generated over $1.7 million in revenue.
The marketplace, the court documents show, sold valid access devices and illicit goods and services that could be immediately used for financial fraud.
PopeyeTools allegedly promised refunds or purchase replacements for goods that were no longer valid at the time of sale and provided users with access to services enabling them to check the validity of the stolen information being offered for sale.
In addition to seizing the PopeyeTools domains, the US unsealed charges against Abdul Ghaffar, 25, and Abdul Sami, 35, of Pakistan, and Javed Mirza, 37, of Afghanistan, who allegedly administered the illicit marketplace.
Furthermore, the US obtained judicial authorization to seize roughly $283,000 in cryptocurrency from an account controlled by Sami.
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