US Shuts Down 'SSNDOB Marketplace' for Selling Social Security Numbers
The US government has pulled the plug on an online marketplace that sold Social Security numbers for over 20 million Americans.
The SSNDOB Marketplace operated as a series of websites that listed the personal information of about 24 million individuals in the US. But on Tuesday, the Justice Department announced(Opens in a new window) it had seized the websites—which included ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club and blackjob.biz—and shut them down.
“Taking down the SSNDOB website disrupted ID theft criminals and helped millions of Americans whose personal information was compromised,” said IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldo in the announcement.
According to investigators, the SSNDOB Marketplace raked in over $19 million in revenue by selling the stolen personal information, which also included names and dates of births. In addition, the administrators behind SSNDOB advertised the marketplace on underground forums on the dark web, where hackers buy and sell goods.
“The administrators also employed various techniques to protect their anonymity and to thwart detection of their activities, including using online monikers that were distinct from their true identities, strategically maintaining servers in various countries, and requiring buyers to use digital payment methods, such as bitcoin,” the Justice Department said.
Cryptocurrency tracking firm Chainalysis said(Opens in a new window) SSNDOB had been accepting Bitcoin since 2015. “Users were able to browse available PII (personal identifying information) by country and search for specific names or other characteristics,” it added. “Cybercriminals who purchased this information could use it to conduct phishing attacks and blackmail scam campaigns, as well as to
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