The US Department of Justice (DoJ) recently announced the seizure of PopeyeTools, a marketplace for trading stolen credit card information, and charges against three of its administrators. The DoJ said that PopeyeTools was disrupted after the US legally seized its .com, .co.uk, and .to domains that facilitated access to the marketplace. In or around 2016, PopeyeTools was already a significant online marketplace for trading financial information and tools that allowed people to commit cybercrime and fraud. The DoJ noted that users of the illicit portal had access to stolen bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and debit card numbers, as well as additional information that facilitated the conducting of fraudulent transactions. The marketplace had thousands of users worldwide, including individuals associated with ransomware attacks. Since its inception, PopeyeTools is estimated to have offered for sale the personally identifiable information (PII) of more than 227,000 individuals and to have generated over $1.7 million in revenue. The marketplace sold valid access devices and illicit goods and services that could be immediately used for financial fraud. In addition to seizing the PopeyeTools domains, the US announced charges against Abdul Ghaffar, 25, and Abdul Sami, 35, of Pakistan, and Javed Mirza, 37, of Afghanistan, who allegedly administered the illicit marketplace. Furthermore, the US obtained judicial authorization to seize roughly $283,000 in cryptocurrency from an account controlled by Sami.
SecurityWeek reports: "US Takes Down Stolen Credit Card Marketplace PopeyeTools"