One of the largest carding platforms on the Dark Web, UniCC, has announced its “withdrawal” from the criminal industry.
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UniCC has been operating since 2013. The platform specializes in what is known as “carding”: credit card fraud and the sale of stolen data that can then be used to make unauthorized transactions, clone cards, and potentially facilitate identity theft.
The takedown notice was posted in both Russian and English on various dark web forums.
The operators then gave the obvious reasons for closing UniCC: the age and health of its team.
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The UniCC team then warned users that they have 10 days to complete business and clear their accounts before the platform will be shut down, along with its affiliate domain – LuxSocks.
According to an analysis conducted by Elliptic, since 2013, UniCC has generated approximately $358 million in revenue from stolen data via cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Dash.
In February of last year, one of the largest carding forums, Joker's Stash, decided to withdraw from the market. The platform facilitated the trading and sale of stolen payment card, but after some domains used by Joker's Stash were seized several months earlier — and the operator was hospitalized due to COVID-19 — the service was shut down.
It is estimated that Joker's Stash earned millions of dollars in illegal profits during its lifetime.
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Even if the operators have truly “retired,” that doesn’t mean the story is over – law enforcement could be knocking on their door some time later.
Information source: zdnet.com
