Law enforcement shuts down marketplace selling personal data of 24 million people for cryptocurrency

Law enforcement authorities, in the course of an international operation, announced the dismantling of the SSNDOB marketplace, where personal data were sold for cryptocurrency for at least about 24 million U.S. residents. This was reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Among the personal data that could be purchased on the platform were names, dates of birth, and victims’ Social Security numbers. According to law enforcement, the illicit operation netted the operators of SSNDOB more than $19 million.

The marketplace administrators advertised it on dark-net forums, and to ensure anonymity they used fictitious names, servers in various countries, and accepted only cryptocurrencies, the Justice Department said.

Chainalysis analysts said that upon registering on the platform a user would receive an address for transferring crypto assets linked to their account:

“In other words, users could top up their SSNDOB account, rather than buying directly from their wallets. The marketplace primarily accepted Bitcoin, with Litecoin also known to be in operation.”

Chainalysis said that since April 2015, SSNDOB operators had received almost $22 million in Bitcoin across more than 100,000 transactions.

Most of the funds traced by the analysts came from centralized crypto exchanges and P2P platforms and other services. About 10% of them were sent through crypto ATMs.

Earlier in April, German police confiscated the Hydra darknet marketplace servers and seized 543 BTC.

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