Bankrupt Banker: South Yorkshire and London

Darkmarket enabled fraudsters to buy and sell credit card details, and learn how to convert them into cash, was shut down

online criminal forum that was used by thousands of fraudsters to buy and sell stolen credit card and bank details has been shut down following a two year FBI-led undercover operation.The Dark Market site was used by cyber criminals around the world to buy and sell credit card data, user names and passwords, as well as equipment for carrying out financial crimes. The FBI - which shut the site down earlier this month - says at its peak Dark Market had over 2500 registered members.<br />The FBI infiltrated the forum, gathering intelligence on leading criminals before teaming with other agencies to identify the fraudsters.  Around 56 people have been arrested following co-ordinated raids carried out in the US, Germany, Turkey and the UK.Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) arrested 11 people in London, Manchester and Leicester as part of the investigation into the Dark Market Web site.<br />Soca says sites like Dark Market are closely guarded and inaccessible to most Web users as they operate on an exclusive membership basis and by invitation only. The sites use breaking-news style updates on the latest compromised personal information.<br />Sharon Lemon, deputy director, e-crime, Soca says the people involved in this kind of activity are not technical experts but "thieves with keyboards".  "They have a certain arrogance - they think they are untouchable," she says."The message today is that no-one should feel confident that these forums are a secure place to operate," adds Lemon. "While some suspects remain at large in the UK and overseas, Soca and its partners will continue to identify these individuals and bring them to justice."  Soca says further arrests are expected both in the UK and abroad as the investigation continues.The operation against the Dark Market forum also prevented $70 million in losses through the seizure of compromised victim accounts, says the FBI.Says Shawn Henry, assistant director, cyber division, FBI: "In today's world of rapidly expanding technology, where cyber crimes are perpetrated instantly from anywhere in the world, law enforcement needs to be flexible and creative in our efforts to target these criminals."Leads in many of these investigations take us to the online world of Internet forums, where criminals go to engage in the business of selling and trading innocent person's credit card numbers and other personal information."Henry says the arrests "are a good demonstration of the coordination taking place today between the FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and other law enforcement agencies around the globe".<br />Sixty people across the globe have been arrested in connection with the "Darkmarket" website, including Britons from Leicester, Manchester, Humberside, South Yorkshire and London.The international forum that enabled fraudsters to buy and sell credit card details, and learn how to convert them into cash, was shut down by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).The site allowed criminals to exchange information on how to commit online fraud, as well as offering the sensitive data contained on the magnetic strips of credit cards.Soca said one of the people arrested had spent £250,000 buying personal data on the site, which could have been used to make £10m from identity fraud.Police used international crime specialists to infiltrate the website and identify its users.A spokesman said: "People were exchanging information about how to commit online fraud."(The site) enabled a whole range of criminal activities, from how to go about stealing data to how to make the best use of it once it had been stolen."The website had been in operation for three years and could only be accessed by invitation.Greg Day, security analyst from McAfee, told Sky News Online the arrests were a "great step forward", but added that as numbers of online shoppers grow, identity theft is a growing problem."We spend more of our lives now in the digital world - and so do criminals," he said."On the high street, we understand the risks and take steps to manage them."Online there are different risks and people need to be prepared to deal with them appropriately."Mr Day added online fraud is becoming increasingly difficult to stamp out.He said: "It's much harder to really understand the true origins - to infiltrate and co-ordinate these raids on a global basis - which is what we have to do with cyber threats."What's very significant about this case is that it was a syndicate that stole the information, educated people on how to use it and then converted it into cash.