Joker's Stash , the largest forum for buying and selling stolen card data, announced its closure
Specifically, the forum will stop operating from February 15, 2021.
Forum users were informed by the administrator, who announced the decision via messages on various illegal forums where he had previously offered services .
According to security firm Intel 471, “the Joker's Stash fall comes after a very turbulent end to 2020.”
“In October, the person who allegedly runs the site announced that he had contracted COVID-19, spending a week in the hospital. The condition impacted the site’s forums, inventory replenishment, and other operations,” the company said.
“Intel 471 also noticed that customers were complaining that the quality of the online marketplace's payment card data was getting worse and worse.“
In addition to these incidents, however, in December 2020, the FBI and Interpol also took down four domains managed by the forum.
The administrators had stated at the time that the specific domains were used as proxy servers to redirect users to the site and did not contain card or user information.
However, the fact that the once "indestructible" Joker's Stash had been discovered by the authorities had an impact on its reputation and users began to abandon it.
The administrator of Joker's Stash did not provide details regarding the decision to close the forum, but it is possible that this is due to the incident with law enforcement and the fear that they may at some point discover more important domains.
Joker's Stash has been one of the most profitable cybercrime operations in recent years.
“The store is estimated to have made hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal profits, although that money also goes to the sellers themselves,” said Christopher Thomas, Intelligence Production Analyst at Gemini Advisory.
In 2020 alone, the site posted more than 35 million CP (card present) files and more than 8 million CNP (card not present) files for sale.
“In 2020, its significant violations included BIGBADABOOM-III (which compromised Wawa), NIRVANA (which compromised Fine Burgers & Champagne French Bakery Cafe), and BLAZINGSUN (which compromised Dickey's Barbecue Pit),” Thomas said.
The administrator of Joker's Stash, which has been operating since October 7, 2014, has indicated that he intends to delete all servers and backups when he shuts down operations next month.
Source: ZDNet
