August 30, 2010
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U.S. Crackdown On Cybercriminals, Pt.1
A sophisticated and organized heist.French authorities arrested an alleged credit card thief who has now become a defendant in a U.S. federal case considered to be the "most sophisticated and organized computer fraud ever conducted." Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, also known as “BadB” was arrested in France and has been issued a revised indictment which includes his alleged involvement with a $9.5 million heist against an Atlanta based debit and credit card payment processing company RBS WorldPay. Horohorin was charged with one count each of wire fraud and access device fraud for his alleged role in the crime. The heist took place on November 8, 2008 when an unknown number of thieves with stolen credit cards in hand, bombarded automatic teller machines across the globe
U.S. officials also indicted one of Horohorin's accomplices Sergei Tsurikov who was extradited to the United States from Estonia earlier this month. U.S. federal officials continue to work with other international companies in hopes of bringing down more credit card thieves. The FBI also arrested a few of Horohorin's accomplices in Mariposa botnet Slovenia and three thieves in Spain. According to court documents, Horohorin and his accomplices used prepaid payroll cards with RBS account numbers to simultaneously withdraw funds from credit card accounts at ATMs across Moscow. The ring was able to steal over $125,000.
Officials in France had previously arrested Horohorin on credit card fraud charges where he was charged with access device fraud and identity theft fraud. He was one of the original hackers involved with the CarderPlanet black market card site in Russia. After its shut down, Horohorin resorted to selling his victims' personal information through his own websites called dumps.name and badb.biz. Horohorin made no secret of his illegal activities as he bragged online that he was the "biggest" seller of card information that was hidden in the magnetic strips. U.S. FBI agents gathered the evidence needed to indict Horohorin and worked with French authorities to locate and arrest him.