Stolen credit card sellers retire with $358 million in crypto

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A blockchain analytics firm called Elliptic says operators of UniCC, which the firm describes as “the dark web’s premier marketplace for stolen credit cards,” retired after raking in around $358 million. dollars of various cryptocurrencies since the site launched in 2013.

The UniCC operators reportedly announced their retirement on a number of English and Russian dark web forums. Elliptic shared a screenshot of one such post in which the operators say not to “build conspiracy theories” about why they shut it down after nearly a decade.

(Elliptical)

“It’s a balanced decision”, they say, “we are not young and our health does not allow us to work like this anymore”. The operators also say they will give UniCC users 10 days to spend their account balances before shutting down the stolen credit card market permanently.

Elliptic notes that several platforms similar to UniCC have shut down in recent months. It only became the top provider of stolen credit cards after Joker’s Stash shut down in February 2021, for example, and four other such platforms shut down between October 2021 and January.

“The wave of recent departures has potentially been a trigger for UniCC’s retirement,” says Elliptic, “as illicit actors see an opportunity in the turmoil to either flee with user funds or retire for avoid increased attention from law enforcement.”

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The company also claims that the stolen card market “recently topped over $1.4 billion in sales with Bitcoin alone.” So the question is not whether UniCC will be replaced by another stolen credit card market, but which platforms will compete for that crown.

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