WT1SHOP, is an online black market that specialised in the sale of stolen login passwords and other personal information. WT1SHOP was shut down as a result of a global law enforcement operation.
The four domains utilized by the website—”wt1store[.]net,” “wt1store[.]cc,” “wt1store[.]com,” and “wt1store[.]net”—were seized as a result of an operation coordinated by Portuguese authorities.
According to the U.S. Justice Department (DoJ), the website sold over 5.85 million records of personally identifiable information (PII), including 25,000 scanned driver’s licenses and passports. Also, 1.7 million login credentials for various online stores, 108,000 bank accounts, and 21,800 credit cards.
The Department of Justice also made public a criminal complaint against Nicolai Colesnicov, 36, of the Republic of Moldova, charging him with controlling the market. Colesnicov is accused of conspiring and of dealing in unlicensed access devices.
Unsealed court documents claim that WT1SHOP provided a payment method that enabled Bitcoin to support the trafficking of stolen PII. As of December 2021, the account shop had 106,273 registered users, 94 sellers, and a total of around 5.85 million credentials for sale.
The Reasons
The login information includes those used to remotely access and control computers, servers, and network devices without authority. As well as those from stores and financial institutions, email accounts, PayPal accounts, and identification cards.
The DoJ also claimed that law enforcement was able to link Colesnicov’s involvement in running the illegal market to the Bitcoin transactions made on WT1SHOP. As well as the email addresses and login details from those accounts.
Colesnicov could receive a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if found guilty.
The development occurs more than a year after law enforcement organizations from the US, Germany, the Netherlands, and Romania disrupted and shut down the Slilpp underground market, which specialized in trading login credentials that had been stolen.
