the largest online marketplace for stolen credit and debit cards, announced it will close next week after facilitating $358 million in transactions over nine years, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported Wednesday — the latest in a wave of illicit dark web marketplace closures.
Credit card information can be stolen through phishing or other scams, or by hacking bank and retail databases. The cards can then be sold or used to launder money obtained through other forms of online crime. UniCC’s shuttering is the latest in a series of closures on the dark web, a part of the internet that can only be accessed with special authorization or with special software and that is known for hosting illegal activity. Elliptic speculated that UniCC’s sudden closure could have been motivated by a desire to avoid increased law enforcement scrutiny after the shuttering of similar illicit online marketplaces. This month, the online drug site Monopoly Market suspended services in what Elliptic described as a possible exit scam, a scheme in which a business owner absconds with payments for orders that are never fulfilled. Online drug site ToRReZ Market also voluntarily closed around December 2021 and White House Market, a major online drug site that drew inspiration from the show Breaking Bad, closed in October 2021. Joker’s Stash, whose 2018 bitcoin revenues more than tripled UniCC’s according to Elliptic, voluntarily shut down last February. Additionally, in June, stolen login credentials market Slilpp was seized by the FBI and other law enforcement groups.
