FBI Busts Carder Ring

The FBI made arrests against the credit card theft ring called “CardKeeper Forum.” the group specialized in stolen credit card and debit card numbers, and they traded the information online for cash. Such groups often use “mules” or middlemen in order to forward cash and credit cards to buyers and sellers in exchange for a slice of the profit. In fact, recent reports of spam to recruit such mules have been noted by Panda Software here.

From USA Today here:

In its latest crackdown on cybercrime, the FBI planned to announce Friday the arrests of 16 people in the USA and Poland suspected of participating in a website where stolen personal data were traded and phishing attacks were launched.

Individuals were arrested in Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio. Raids were conducted in New York, Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Georgia and Ohio, the FBI said.

Search warrants on three individuals in Romania also were performed this week as part of the ongoing investigation.

The actions against the Cardkeeper forum are the highest-profile since the Richmond, Va., division of the bureau started investigating the phishing attack on a bank in mid-2004. More than 100,000 credit and debit cards from more than 1,000 individuals were compromised.

“Cybercriminals will no longer be able to hide behind borders to conduct their illicit business,” James Finch, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said in a statement.