Gang members allegedly behind a Web forum used by crooks to trade credit card data have been arrested in Vietnam and the UK. Meanwhile, in another blow to the cyber-crime community, Microsoft has led an operation to disrupt a massive botnet used to steal around $500 million.
In an operation involving Vietnamese authorities, the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the FBI, eight people accused of running the carding site have been arrested in Vietnam, while three "significant users" have been detained in London.
The 'mattfeuter' site - now shut down - had around 16,000 members, and facilitated more than $200 million-worth of card fraud worldwide through 'hacking' of commercial entities to harvest and then sell data relating to 1.1 million credit cards, says Soca.
Crooks could gain access via a secure login and specify the quantity and type of credit card data they wanted, with discounts offered for bulk purchases. Sellers charged fees from $1 to $300 per data dump, depending on the victim's country of origin and the completeness of the information being sold.
The fees were paid via wire transfer services including Western Union and Liberty Reserve, which was also recently shut down by authorities.
One of the men arrested in Vietnam, Duy Hai Truong, has been charged in the US with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and faces up to 30 years in jail.
Andy Archibald, Soca, says: "One of the world's major facilitation networks for online card fraud has been dismantled by this operation, and those engaged in this type of crime should know that that they are neither anonymous, nor beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies."
Meanwhile, in a separate blow to the cyber-crime community, Microsoft has led a major assault on a botnet used to steal online banking details and pilfer hundreds of millions of dollars.
Working with financial services firms, tech vendors and law enforcement agencies, Microsoft says that it has managed to simultaneously cut off communication between 1,462 botnets used by the Citadel malware, with the millions of computers under their control.
Before being cut off, the Citadel malware affected more than five million people from 90 countries around the world, causing people and businesses around $500 million in losses.
FBI executive assistant director Richard McFeely, says: "Creating successful public-private relationships-in which tools, knowledge, and intelligence are shared-is the ultimate key to success in addressing cyber threats and is among the highest priorities of the FBI."