UK Coppers Crack $200m Carder Crew

UK police played a key role in taking down a major carder site, where more than $200 million (£129m) worth of credit card details were bought and sold, it has been revealed.

In an operation led by Vietnamese authorities, the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA),  the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) and the FBI helped close the website, mattfeuter.ru.

Carder site downed

Eight alleged members of the organised carder crime group behind the website were arrested in Vietnam, whilst three suspected “significant” users of the forum were arrested in the UK. They included a 37-year-old from West Ham, a 34-year-old from Thornton Heath and a 44-year-old from Manor Park.

One of those arrested in Vietnam was Duy Hai Truong, a 23-year-old from Ho Chi Minh City, who had charges levelled against him in the US.

Data on 1.1 million credit cards was sold on the site, which had around 16,000 members.

“One of the world’s major facilitation networks for online card fraud has been dismantled by this operation, and those engaged in this type of crime should know that that they are neither anonymous, nor beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies,” said

“We and our partners, in the UK and abroad, continue to protect the public and legitimate businesses by targeting websites trading in stolen card data, and relentlessly pursuing those who operate and frequent them.”

The news came on the same day Microsoft announced it had disrupted nearly 1,500 Citadel botnets, which were harvesting victims’ banking data.

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