In the US, two men have been indicted for their alleged involvement in running the WWH Club marketplace, which specializes in selling sensitive personal and financial information.
Alex Khodyrev, 35, a citizen of Kazakhstan, and Pavel Kublitsky, 37, a Russian, were charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud and network Internet fraud.
Khodyrov and Kublitsky, in the period from 2014 to 2024. acted as the main administrators of WWH Club (wwh-club(.)ws) and various other subsidiary sites – wwh-club(.)net, center-club(.)pw, opencard(.)pw, skynetzone(.)org – which functioned as dark web markets, forums, and training centers for cybercrime.
The indictment stems from an investigation launched by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July 2020 after it was determined that WWH Club’s primary domain (www-club(.)ws) resolved to an IP address owned by DigitalOcean, allowing them to issue federal a search warrant for an infrastructure company.
“Members of the WWH Club and affiliated sites used marketplaces to buy and sell stolen personally identifiable information (PII), credit card and bank account information, and computer passwords, among other sensitive information,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement. said.
Forums, on the other hand, have served as a hot spot for discussing best practices for committing fraud, launching cyberattacks, and evading law enforcement.
In addition, the darknet marketplace offered online fraud courses for novice and active cybercriminals. The announced cost of the course ranged from 10,000 to 60,000 rubles (approximately $110 to $664 as of September 7, 2024) and an additional $200 for study materials.
Court documents show that undercover FBI agents registered on the site and took training offered by the platform, paying about $1,000 in bitcoins, which included topics such as selling sensitive information, DDoS and hacking services, credit card skimmers and brute force. programs.
“Learning was delivered through a forum chat function for a class of approximately 50 students; various instructors provided training in a text format rather than an audio format,” the criminal complaint states. “It was clear that the purpose of the training was to teach people how to obtain and use stolen credit card data and identification information to generate fraudulent income.”
The WWH Club was estimated to have 353,000 users worldwide as of March 2023, compared to 170,000 registered users in July 2020. Both Khodyrov and Kublitsky are believed to have profited from membership fees, tuition fees and revenue from advertising.
Flash point, in a the report published last month, said WWH-Club continues to operate despite law enforcement efforts and that “its other administrators are trying to distance themselves from Kublitsky and Khodyrov.”
Khodyrov and Kublitsky “lived in Miami for the past two years while secretly continuing to administer the WWH club and its affiliate marketplaces, forums and schools on the dark web,” the Justice Department said.
If convicted on all counts, each could face up to 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of Khodyrov’s 2023 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG and Kublitsky’s 2020 Cadillac CT5 Sport sedan, which were allegedly purchased with the proceeds of their criminal activities.
