Cybercrime Supersite 'DarkMarket' Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm | Hacker News Reader

Cybercrime Supersite 'DarkMarket' Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm

blog.wired.com

18 pointsmariorz10 comments

From the article linked at the bottom of the article:

"DarkMarket is the only survivor among the handful of crime forums that emerged to fill the hole left by the Secret Service's "Operation Firewall" in October 2004. In that unprecedented law enforcement crackdown, the agency used an informant to target what was then the top crime site, Shadowcrew.com."

I think it's hilarious that the leading crime forums have been sting operations for the last several years. How long before criminals start assuming this is the case by default?

I'm sure they already do assume that, but an eastern european browsing off of his neighbors wifi and 7 proxies probably doesnt care that the fbi is running the forum as long as it works.

True, but some of them must be operating with faulty assumptions, since otherwise the government derives little utility from running the site.

The value is in having nearly every cyber criminal on the planet gather at a central location. They're able to easily build a database of usernames, passwords, email addresses, and IPs. They can also monitor what type of goods are being sold and new schemes that pop up.

Everyone knows that law enforcement runs/monitors these forums, but they don't care. You need to be anonymous every step of the way.

When reading this I begin to remember an article I read on MSNBC some time ago about a sting operation in which several criminals (not violent ones, just ones wanted for robberies of various sorts) were identified and traced but were evading law enforcement. To solve this problem, police sent them priority mail, from the Police Department mind you, informing them that they had all won brand new 42" HDTVs, among other prizes, and that they needed to show up at a local mall at such and such date/time in order to claim their prize. Every single one of them showed up and were arrested upon walking in the door.

That's surprisingly a pretty common sting. I've heard it used to nab deadbeat dads by getting them to all come to a stadium to "collect the prize they won".

love the printed out LOLcat picture in the lower right-hand corner of the office picture - http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/13/ncfta_...

love how the head FBI agent was called 'Master Splynter'. Awesome.

I wonder if it's possible to solve this with something like a web of trust.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet_(file_sharing)

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