Shadowcrew operators plead guilty
Comments(1) Shadowcrew.com was a very popular carder site closed down by The U.S. Secret Service in October 2004. Their forums formed the hub of a criminal business dealing in more than 1.5 million stolen credit-card numbers and dumps resulting in losses of over $4 million. The six men charged plead guilty recently.
Stephens, Taylor, Mantovani, Zielinski, Monchamp and Lanning all acknowledged that Shadowcrew members sent and received payment for illicit merchandise and services via Western Union money transfers and digital currencies such as E-Gold and Web Money. In addition, Mantovani admitted that in September 2004, he illegally acquired via computer, approximately 18 million e-mail accounts with associated usernames, passwords, dates of birth, and other personally identifying information - approximately 60,000 of which included first and last name, gender, address, city, state, country and telephone number.
Lanning, was a moderator of the “Fake ID” forum, as well as a vendor of false identification documents. Lanning admitted that he encoded credit card number information onto blank plastic cards so the credit card numbers could be used to illegally obtain merchandise including gift cards. He admitted creating and selling approximately 300-400 false identification documents including false driver’s licenses and health insurance cards.
Dhanani, who served as a moderator on the website, outlined his role in providing an exchange service, for a fee, to Shadowcrew members, whereby the members would send him sums of cash and he would convert the cash into E-Gold electronic currency. Dhanani stated that Shadowcrew members used E-Gold to avoid traditional banking systems.
Taylor, who was a moderator on the Shadowcrew website, generated false identification documents, such as fake driver’s licenses, and distributed them to other Shadowcrew members. Taylor served as a reviewer of false identifications documents. A favorable written review was a prerequisite to offering such false identification documents, and other illicit merchandise, for sale on the Shadowcrew website.
Stephens acknowledged his role as a moderator and vendor on the Shadowcrew site. Stephens acknowledged - as did Mantovani, Taylor, Lanning and Monchamp - acquiring stolen credit and bank card numbers from other Shadowcrew members during the course of the conspiracy. The stolen credit account numbers were then used to illegally obtain goods from retail establishments and cash from automated teller machines.
Monchamp, was a moderator on the Shadowcrew website. He, like Lanning, also encoded credit card number information onto blank plastic cards so the credit card numbers could be used to illegally obtain merchandise. Monchamp also acknowledged his role in generating false identification documents, such as fake driver’s licenses, and distributing these documents to other Shadowcrew members. He was a reviewer of false identification materials and vendor of false identification and counterfeit credit cards.
I must say they were doing it way too public. Requests and offers were done openly in the forums. 6 is only a micro fraction of the number of those who got away.
