FBI Says Dark Market Sting Netted 56 Arrests

narramissic writes "A two-year undercover FBI sting operation targeting online 'carder' forums hosted on the DarkMarket.ws Web site has netted 56 arrests and prevented about $70 million in fraud losses, the FBI said Thursday. DarkMarket.ws was widely used by online scammers to buy and sell stolen credit card numbers, other financial information, and even the devices used to make fake banking cards. Before it was shut down earlier this month, the Web site had registered more than 2,500 members. Although Dark Market was thought to have been administered by a criminal going by the name Master Splyntr, German Public Radio reported on Monday that the FBI had been running a sting operation on the site since late 2006, and that Master Splyntr was actually an FBI agent named J. Keith Mularski." Of course, they say it in German; non-German speakers may want to consult the Babelfish.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Sique]

Ich zumindest begrüße unsere neuen Oberhäupter.

Re:agent identities

[autocracy]

Well, they're not undercover, per se. Whenever a case comes to trial, the officer's name always ends up on the record. Further, I presume there is no such thing as a career undercover officer. I believe the way they, and most police organizations at a lower level, work is that willing officers rotate into undercover operations for a period of time, and then rotate back to "real" duty of some kind.

Re:I don't get it

[Jester998]

[italic]Isn't this entrapment? [/italic]
No, entrapment only happens when the authorities coerce you into doing something you wouldn't have done normally (i.e. send a hot female officer who promises to, ahem, 'reward' you if you commit an illegal act against your will). It does not cover things done of your own will (i.e. signing up for a forum and participating).

Re:Oh come ON

[Anonymous Coward]

They were just copying what's been done before.

There have been numerous similar online forums before this, the 3 most famous being, probably:

shadowcrew

carderplanet

darkprofits

these were all actually run by the criminals and not by an FBI sting, so it's not like there wasn't precedent for such an obviously named forum.

Re:Ich fuer ein

[Sique]

Ok. For the german readers here a translation:

Zwei Kartoffeln saßen im Backofen.
Die erste Kartoffel sagte: "Es ist sehr heiß!"
Da sagte die zweite Kartoffel: "Du meine Güte! Eine sprechende Kartoffel!"

Re:agent identities

[Tanktalus]

The definition of entrapment [lectlaw.com] has three things:

1. The idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime. Offering you narcotics passes this test. Running a site for clearing stolen credit card information, being passive, does not.
2. The government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving him the opportunity to commit the crime is not the same as persuading him to commit the crime. Asking you merely once if you want to buy narcotics isn't persuading you. Running a site for clearing stolen credit card information isn't, either.
3. The person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before the government agents spoke with him. If you weren't willing to buy narcotics, someone asking you to buy some wouldn't get you to do it. If you didn't already have credit card info to sell, or want to buy stolen credit card, you wouldn't be looking for the sting site.

So, no, this is not entrapment.