Police in the Thai capital Bangkok say they have arrested a Russian national accused by U.S. authorities of running a huge online cybercrime marketplace.
They said that Sergey Medvedev was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities and is now awaiting extradition.
He is accused of numerous criminal enterprises ranging from selling stolen credit card information to selling hardware that enables ATM security to be breached.
Sergey Medvedev, 31, center, was arrested outside the Bangkok apartment where he is accused of playing a role in an international identity theft ring that sold stolen credit card information on the dark web, leading to losses of more than £383 million
Medvedev, center, is reported to have remained silent during his arrest on Friday – he now faces extradition to the U.S.
The U.S. says that Medvedev, 31, was InFraud’s co-founder along with Svyatoslav Bondarenko, and said he had operated a payment system for the forum’s members
The Russian is also accused of using InFraud, a dark web marketplace selling stolen credit card info, malware and other tools to conduct identity theft.
He said nothing to police at the time of his arrest, and had been monitored by Thai and US authorities since last year, Thai police were reported by khaosodenglish.com as saying.
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced indictments against 36 people accused of being active on Infraud – founded in 2010 and operated under the slogan ‘In Fraud We Trust’.
They ran an anonymous online forum that the department described as a ‘one-stop shop for cybercriminals’ and had nearly 11,000 members who traded more than 4.3 million credit cards, debit cards and bank accounts worldwide.
The dark web is an expanding online crime area, blamed among other things for data breaches, extortion of young people for child pornography and fraud
Ransomware eclipsed most other forms of cybercrime as on-line crime surged in 2017, European policing agency Europol said last year, citing high-profile attacks such as ‘WannaCry’ that reached millions of computers (Stock image)
Banks are often the targets of online fraud – the fraudsters claim to have targeted 795,000 log-ins for British customers of HSBC
Their activities led to losses of more than £383 million for legitimate users and businesses.
The U.S. indictment described Medvedev, 31, as the group’s co-founder along with Svyatoslav Bondarenko, and said he had operated a payment system for the forum’s members.
It said Medvedev became the website’s owner and administrator when Bondarenko went missing in 2015.
Thai Police arresting officer Nuthapong Rattanamongkolsak said U.S. officials had tracked the group for several years but only recently started to make arrests.
‘Before the operation could be ready, they had to recheck their targets in various countries,’ Nutthapong said, adding that the case against the Infraud began in 2014 when a U.S. Homeland Security officer sent an undercover agent to sign up as a member of the Dark Web forum.
On Thursday, 13 wanted persons were taken into custody across the globe, including in California, New York and Alabama. Suspects arrested in France, Britain, Italy, Australia, Kosovo and Serbia are awaiting extradition.
Medvedev will be extradited to face prosecution in the U.S., Nutthapong said.
A Thai police statement said they seized 29 electronic items from Medvedev’s Bangkok apartment, while the Infraud main servers were seized Wednesday in Paris.
The police statement said officers were able to arrest Medvedev by performing stake-outs, behavioural analyse and by investigating his online activity.
Nutthapong said Thai police are tracking several other similar online syndicates.
Last year Thai authorities arrested the alleged operator of Alphabay, a massive Dark Web marketplace where illicit items such as narcotics and guns could be sold or purchased by anyone, unlike Infraud, which vetted its members.
The alleged Alphabay administrator, 26-year-old Canadian Alexandre Cazes, was found dead in his Thai prison cell shortly after his arrest, a suicide by hanging according to Thai police.