A UK teenager who ran a cybercrime Website retailing stolen credit card details worldwide is facing a lengthy prison sentence after admitting fraud charges at Southwark Crown Court.
Nick Webber, 19, and four accomplices, set up GhostMarket.net which specialised in online bank account hacking, and retailing of viruses and stolen credit card details. The site - which had almost 8000 members - also offered tutorials on how to commit online bank frauds.
Webber, the son of a former Guernsey politician, was caught with details for 100,000 credit cards on his laptop. The GhostMarket.net site charged $3 for US account details, $5 for EU data and $6 for UK passwords and credit card numbers.
The site was rumbled after an an eight-month investigation by the Met's Police Central e-Crime Unit. Officers have so far recovered more than 65,000 compromised card numbers, which at an estimated industry loss of £120 per card, could have led to losses of up to £7.9 million.
Webber has been remanded in custody to await sentencing in February next year. Summing up, Judge John Price said: "These are such serious matters that there may well be substantial periods of imprisonment."