DarkMarket Hacker Dr Smurf Pleads Guilty

A Lithuanian hacker known as Dr Smurf, caught on the DarkMarket cybercrime forum in 2008, has finally come to trial in the US and pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft.

The US resident sold user identities (logins and passwords) and credit card details for $2000 each, unaware he was dealing with an FBI agent. DarkMarket had been under FBI control since 2006. DarkMarket, described as an “eBay for criminals” was administered by pizza delivery man Renukanth Subramanian from North London, who was sentenced for his role in 2010.

DarkMarket darker than he thought

Twenty-three year old Tadas Petrauskas, who lives in Brick, New Jersey, was under surveillance through his email accounts and he was arrested at JFK airport as he returned from a trip to Belgium.

Petrauskas admitted hacking into computer systems and selling stolen credit card details, crimes for which he will be sentenced on 30 October and could serve up to five years in jail.

DarkMarket had around 2500 members, who could trade stolen credit card details, as well as full ID details required for bank accounts. Forum members paid each other through a secure “escrow” service. Both Dr Smurf and Subramanian were captured by FBI agent J Keith Mularski, who posed on the site as a hacker called MasterSplynter.

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