NICE, France – A Russian national authorities believe may be one of the biggest sellers of stolen credit card data over the Internet was arrested here on a U.S. warrant last week and is waiting to be extradited to the U.S. to face charges.
Vladislav Horohorin, 27, known as “BadB” and founder of the Internet site carderplanet.com, was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2009 on charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The indictment was unsealed today, following Horohorin’s arrest by French authorities during the weekend.
Horohorin, who is a citizen of Israel and the Ukraine, allegedly used online criminal forums such as “CarderPlanet” and “carder.su” to sell credit card information stolen by U.S. accomplices, including Alberto Gonzalez, convicted earlier of major security breaches at TJX Cos., Hannaford Bros., BJ Wholesale Club, Barnes & Nobles and Sports Authority.
Horohorin advertised the availability of stolen credit card information through these web forums, and directed purchasers to create accounts at “dumps.name,” a fully-automated dumps vending website operated by Horohorin and hosted outside the United States, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Monday. The website was designed to assist in the exchange of funds for the stolen credit card information. Horohorin allegedly directed buyers to fund their “dumps.name” account using funds transferred by services including “Webmoney,” an online currency service hosted in Russia. The purchaser would then access the “dumps.name” website and select the desired stolen credit card data. Using an online undercover identity, U.S. Secret Service agents negotiated the sale of numerous stolen credit card dumps.
French authorities, working with the U.S. Secret Service, identified Horohorin in Nice as he was attempting to board a flight to return to Moscow and arrested him at the scene.
“The network created by the founders of CarderPlanet, including Vladislav Horohorin, remains one of the most sophisticated organizations of online financial criminals in the world,” said Michael Merritt, assistant director for investigations for the U.S. Secret Service. “This network has been repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the international law enforcement community.
