How a carding kingpin got caught

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2019/05/how-a-carding-kingpin-got-caught-and-dealt-a-death-blow-to-the-broadway-grill/

by bradford • 7 years ago

87 34 7 years ago

capitolhillseattle.com

dsfyu404ed• 7 years ago

Were there not enough vacation destinations in Russia or something? I don't get why you would willingly travel internationally if the US wants you and your home country doesn't care.

anbop• 7 years ago

You can’t do a tropical beach vacation in Russia. But you’re right that if he thought he’d spend 27 years in jail he would probably have forewent it.

nkrisc• 7 years ago

You can’t do a tropical beach vacation in Russia

A small price to pay for the freedom to operate an international criminal business with impunity.

hackermailman2• 7 years ago

Russia helpfully keeps annexing beach front territory like Crimea and Abkhazia so future bond villains have more vacation options.

plouffy• 7 years ago

As the article notes:

Seleznev likely suspected an atoll in the Maldives, a tropical South Asia nation that does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S

and

Before he traveled, Seleznev used to search the PACER database for his own name and nicknames, to see if there were any arrests warrants.

baybal22• 7 years ago

Few years ago Russia introduced a bill allowing officials and people with "special needs" (people under foreign sanctions) to get "legal fake passports" — apparently just for cases like that.

I haven't been to Russia much since I left in 2006, but even back then there was some kind of contention in between Kremlin's desire to crack down on fake passports as part of attack on dissidents, and the boheme wanting to access fake or blue/diplomatic passports (and accompanying immunity.)

baybal22• 7 years ago

International flight booking records are bordering on being a public record. Remember that when you fly around.

SITA and GDS providers are giving away flight data left and right — this is one of ways how US gets hold of people traveling to Cuba despite them flying through 3rd countries, and China books Uighurs who fly to Saudi Arabia or Turkey

For when some non-US national overflies US, or files a pre-flight form to US, many don't know that such forms are purely symbolic, US government already had hand on this data the moment the ticket was booked.

Scoundreller• 7 years ago

International flight booking records are bordering on being a public record. Remember that when you fly around

Also remember that when someone with your last name, first initial and DOB flies around.

jlg23• 7 years ago

The article clearly states that his home country did care, albeit only through family connections to the top.

dralley• 7 years ago

Russian officials were not pleased. They accused the U.S. of “kidnapping” Seleznev in an attempt to trade him for whistleblower Edward Snowden, which the U.S. denied.

Wow, that's kind of a bombshell.

draw_down• 7 years ago

In what way?

PhasmaFelis• 7 years ago

Only if it's true, which seems unlikely given that this was two years ago.

hackermailman2• 7 years ago

He was arrested in 2014, so possibly true however it's common for US to do this for high level carders https://www.wired.com/2010/07/maksik-lured-to-arrest/

Kalium3• 7 years ago

What makes you think it's unlikely?

It strikes me as unsurprising that Russia would be willing to trade someone who was once a PR coup (but is now mostly irrelevant) for someone who is currently politically very connected. Snowden's asylum has always been on the sufferance of the Russian government.

HeWhoLurksLate• 7 years ago

I remember watching the talk about this- it was a lot more interesting when I realized that it was a recent event and not something from ten years ago.

vpribish• 7 years ago

"carding" is apparently the trafficking in stolen credit cards and banking information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carding_(fraud)

gumby• 7 years ago

I clicked on the link wondering how a title like that could be about wool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carding

bradford• 7 years ago

FYI: The title is copied as-is from the article, but it doesn't do a very good job of selling the content.

Capitolhillseattle.com is a neighborhood blog, the 'Broadway Grill' is one of the diners in that neighborhood, and it was merely one of many businesses that got caught up in carding fraud. The scope of the article is much wider, shedding some light on credit card theft, dark markets for stolen cards, and the duel that goes on between the criminals and the authorities.

AceJohnny2• 7 years ago

and the duel that goes on between the criminals and the authorities.

With a bit of a hint of Russian governmental corruption.

dang• 7 years ago

Maybe we can widen the scope by dropping the diner.

xt00• 7 years ago

Darknet diaries has a great episode on this if you want an audio version of this story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/darknet-diaries/id1296...

dontbenebby• 7 years ago

Darknet Diaries is in general a great podcast. I sometimes struggle when otherwise good podcasts do security stuff because it's too high level for me to be entertained. I think Jack does a good job of being accessible to n00bs and interesting to experts.

audiometry• 7 years ago

Enjoy the podcast but wish the host would cease impersonating Ira Glass’ speaking patterns. It’s kind of creepy. Cannot imagine that it’s accidental.

anonymous5133• 7 years ago

Thanks, high quality production here!

username223• 7 years ago

If you have some time, the linked presentation is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Chp12sEnWk

miohtama2• 7 years ago

Note that if Visa/MasterCars were to force two-factor (or 3DS how they call it) the cardster business would be severely hampered, as one could not simply copy dumb credit card numbers around.

But they do not so, because the fraud cost is paid by merchants (fines, fraud buffer in fee %) and ultimately the consumers as higher prices. Fraud does not hurt Visa/MasterCard bottom line.

remus• 7 years ago

This is about to happen in the EU due to a regulation called PSD2. It's started to be phased in but will kick in properly in September.

logifail• 7 years ago

were to force two-factor...

Q: How secure is the "forgot 3DS password" functionality on 3DS-enabled cards?

miohtama2• 7 years ago

It depends on a bank. It can be a mobile app based, but is often SMS based.

Still orders of magnitude safer than without.

How a carding kingpin got caught

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