Darkmarket fraud site shut down

Darkmarket, a website used by criminals to buy and sell credit card and bank account details, has been shut down following an international police operation.

Raids were carried out in Manchester, Hull and London by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which described the invitation-only forum as "a one-stop shop" for criminals.

The investigation into Darkmarket was instigated by the FBI. Similar raids were carried out in Germany and Turkey and nearly 60 people were arrested.

Outlining how profitable Darkmarket was, Soca deputy director Sharon Lemon said that one individual spent £250,000 on personal data in the last six weeks.

She said that this information had the potential to net him up to £10m.

"You can go to the forum and engage in criminal activity quite freely. You can buy any product you want, you can sell any product you want," Lemon said.

Credit cards belonging to business travellers were the most sought after as they could be used by criminals all over the world without arousing suspicion.

The data held on the magnetic strip of an ordinary credit card was available to buy for as little as £1, Soca said.

There were about 2,000 members of Darkmarket but as each member could have any number of aliases the true number of people involved is still unknown.

"These aren't geeks we're talking about. These are serious and organised criminals," Lemon said.

www.soca.gov.uk