The Portuguese Authorities seized a website operating as a market place selling stolen login credentials and other personally identifying information.
According to the report of the Department of Justice, four internet domains used by the criminal market was seized by the US Law Enforcement that includes “wt1shop.net,” “wt1store.cc,” “wt1store.com,” and “wt1store.net.”
Online Market That Allowed Vendors to Sell Stolen Login Credentials
Nicolai Colesnicov, 36 years old, of Republic of Moldova, Eastern Europe operated an online market ‘WT1SHOP’, which allows vendors to sell stolen login credentials and other PII, including about 25,000 scanned driver’s licenses/passports, 1.7 million login credentials for various online shops, 108,000 bank accounts, and 21,800 credit cards.
WT1SHOP was one of the largest underground marketplaces catering to cyber criminals seeking to buy stolen personally identifying information (PII). The representatives of WT1SHOP usually promoted the marketplace on Russian hacking forums and Reddits that catered to online criminal activity.
On April 21, 2022 the complaint was filed against Colesnicov, charged with conspiracy and with trafficking in unauthorized access devices. The complaint was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron and Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Specifically, WT1SHOP provided a forum and payment mechanism for the sale and purchase of stolen PII, using Bitcoin. Reports mention that in June 2020 Dutch law enforcement officials obtained an image of the WT1SHOP database that confirmed there were around 60,823 registered users on the site, including 91 sellers and two administrators.
“As of June 2020, sellers on WT1SHOP had engaged in sales of approximately 2.4 million credentials for total proceeds of approximately $4 million. The credentials sold consisted of login credentials for retailers and financial institutions, email accounts, PayPal accounts, and identification cards, as well as credentials to remotely access and operate computers, servers, and network devices without authorization”, the Authorities said.
Also, based on the assessment of Law enforcement, the number of users and sellers on the website had increased to around 106,273 users and 94 sellers with a total of around 5.85 million credentials available for sale.
The DOJ reports mention that law enforcement traced the bitcoin payments, email addresses, and admin accounts for WT1SHOP back to Nicolai Colesnicov.
“If convicted, Colesnicov faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy and trafficking in unauthorized access devices”, reads the DOJ announcement.
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