14 DAY TRIAL // New South Wales Police representatives recently admitted to be using online hacking forums to find materials that can be highly useful in identifying and apprehending those who commit credit card fraud.
Everyone is well aware of the fact that identities are sold like warm bread on underground forums and since the phenomenon has reached alarming limits, authorities do the best they can in keeping up with the latest ways of dealing with crooks.
According to SC Magazine, detective inspector Bruce van der Graaf revealed that many of the fraudsters didn't even have advanced hacking skills, instead they just coordinated individuals that are able to breach into restricted networks.
He gave Maksym Yastremskiy as an example, a Ukranian hacker that participated in one of the biggest identity theft scams, illegally gaining more than $11 million (7.7 million EUR).
As it turns out, card fraudsters aren't your average geeks that you might find hiding behind their computer screens, but in many cases they revealed themselves to be involved in illegal drug trade and even outlaw biker gangs.
Underground forums such as carder.org and Carder Planet are “very good Police training manuals,” many investigators relying on the documentation found on them in their investigations.
Van der Graaf also fears that a lot of youths have access to these places, some of them already being tracked down.
“There are plenty of young Aussies out there – we’ve arrested a couple this year and have got a few on the boiler – who are involved in carding,” he says.
“It’s that easy for a young person to find these [carding] sites with a little bit of guidance and get involved in it and try and avoid law enforcement attention.”
Unfortunately, since it is not an easy task to track all those who are looking to commit online fraud, law enforcement officials need the adapt and find resources to combat them in the darkest parts of the internet.