SSNDOB, an online marketplace that sold the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of an estimated 24 million Americans, has been taken offline after an international law enforcement operation.
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The operation was conducted by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Justice, with significant assistance from the Cyprus Police.
Four domains hosting the SSNDOB marketplace have been seized as part of this operation: “ssndob.ws”, “ssndob.vip”, “ssndob.club” and “blackjob.biz”.
The SSNDOB marketplace consisted of multiple websites that acted as mirrors of each other to help prevent DDoS or law enforcement operations. SSNDOB allowed cybercriminals to purchase “social security numbers, dates of birth , and full information of individuals” using bitcoin.
“A series of websites operated for years and were used to sell personal information, including names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers belonging to individuals in the United States. The SSNDOB Marketplace listed the personal information for approximately 24 million individuals in the United States, generating sales revenue of more than $19 million,” a Department of Justice press release explains.
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While the site also sold birth dates for people in the UK, it was primarily used to sell the personal details of US citizens for as little as $0.50.
Cybersecurity firm Advanced Intel told BleepingComputer that much of the data collected was obtained through healthcare and hospital. Other threat actors then used this information to commit financial fraud.
“SSNDOB was one of the largest crime shops that offered a collection of personally identifiable information for fraudsters and played an integral role in frauds. The majority of customers used the shop’s data for various types of fraud from tax to banking fraud,” AdvIntel CEO Vitali Kremez told BleepingComputer.
Is it connected to Joker's Stash?
In a coordinated report, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis explains that they tracked $22 million in Bitcoin paid to SSNDOB since April 2015.
Some of these transactions were quite large, worth $100,000 in Bitcoin, indicating that some cybercriminals were buying data in bulk.
However, one of the most interesting details that Chainalysis discovered was a connection between SSNDOB and Joker's Stash, which was shut down in January 2021.
“Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is the activity we see between SSNDOB and Joker's Stash, a large darknet marketplace focused on stolen credit card information and other PII that was shut down in January 2021,” explains the Chainalysis report.
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"Between December 2018 and June 2019, SSNDOB sent over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin to Joker's Stash, suggesting that the two markets may have had some connection to each other, including possibly shared ownership.".
Joker's Stash voluntarily closed its operations after facing increased pressure from law enforcement, COVID-19- , and declining quality of stolen credit cards.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
