Tag: dark web marketplace

FBI Takes Down Crypto-Laundering Scam

The line between cybercrime and plain old-fashioned fraud has become yet more blurred following the sentencing of international virtual currency vendor Anurag Pramod Murarka to 121 months in prison for his involvement in a classic money laundering operation that he advertised on Darknet marketplaces. According to recently unsealed court documents, Murarka operated an international money laundering business from April 2021 until September 29, 2023. Murarka was able to operate out of India and serviced shady clients in the United States through an intricate Indian “hawala” money transferring system and the use of the US Postal Service as his “unwitting partner in transferring ill-begotten funds.” The original Hawala scam was an Indian political and financial scandal involving illicit payments allegedly sent by politicians through a network of four Hawala brokers that implicated some of the country's leading politicians.

3 Min Read

Feds bust $100m online drugs market ‘Pharoah’

On Saturday, US authorities arrested a 23-year-old Taiwanese man alleged to have operated and owned the infamous ‘Incognito’ dark web drug-dealing website. “Drug traffickers who think they can operate outside the law on the dark web are wrong,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As alleged, Rui-Siang Lin was the architect of Incognito, a $100 million dark web scheme to traffic deadly drugs to the United States and around the world. The long arm of the law extends to the dark web, and we will bring to justice those who try to hide their crimes there,” commented Attorney General Merrick B. Garland yesterday.

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Facebook Marketplace User Data For Sale – February 14th

A cyber-criminal known as "algoatson" placed the data of over 200,000 Facebook Marketplace users for sale on Breach Forums, an illicit marketplace. The Facebook Marketplace compromised user information including full names, passwords, Facebook IDs, emails, and phone numbers, which was claimed to be stolen on October 2023.

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Cyberattack Shuts Down loanDepot IT Systems – January 8th

In response to complaints regarding its payment portal, loanDepot informed its customers that they fell victim to a cyberattack that shut down its IT systems, disrupting its business operations. Currently in coordination with law enforcement and forensics experts to further investigate the attack. The attack on loanDepot marks the second major cyberattack on a US mortgage loan provider in the past few months, after the cyberattack on Mr. Cooper.

2 Min Read