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Fake vaccine card price doubles after Biden announces mandatory shots

skyewerner7 — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 14:04:16 +0000

The price of fake vaccination cards has risen 100% since President Biden’s announcement of a sweeping new vaccine mandate.

In the days before the president’s announcement that all businesses with over 100 employees must require vaccinations or weekly testing, the cost of a fraudulent card ran about $100. The day after the announcement, the average cost spiked to $200.

The number of sellers cashing in on the anti-vax darknet market also spiked, from around 1,000 to more than 10,000, according to data from security firm Check Point shared with the

Biden last Thursday also strengthened a vaccine mandate for federal workers and contractors, requiring them to be vaccinated and eliminating the weekly testing alternative.

The number of subscribers in Telegram groups for fake vaccine cards increased five-fold, according to researchers at Check Point who monitor the darknet market and deep web.

Counterfeit cards have for months popped up on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Facebook, Instagram and other marketplaces.

In April, a bipartisan coalition of 47 state attorneys general sent a letter to the CEOs of Twitter, Shopify and eBay to take down ads or links selling the bogus cards.

Many of the sites have blacklisted keywords related to fake cards, but places to buy the documents are still popping up on messaging apps, chat forums and the dark web link web.

In July, the Department of Justice announced its first prosecution for fake vaccination proof, where a California naturopathic doctor, Juli Mazi, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters.

Biden last Thursday signed an executive order forcing businesses with over 100 employees to require vaccinations or weekly Covid-19 testing

A photo of a hand darknet site using a magnifying glass to check the authenticity of s Covid-19 vaccine card, taken on August 15

Thousands of counterfeit vaccination cards, dark markets 2024 containing typos and misspelled words, have been seized in Memphis

And dark market 2024 web link on Aug. 17, a Chicago pharmacist, TangTang Zao, was arrested for selling dozens of fake vaccine cards for just $10 a pop.

‘To put such a small price on the safety of our nation is not only an insult to those who are doing their part in the fight to stop COVID-19, but a federal crime with serious consequences,’ said Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office.

Zao allegedly sold blank but authentic CDC vaccination cards and was charged with 12 counts of theft of government property. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years in prison per count.

On Aug. 31, a New Jersey woman, Jasmine Clifford, who went by @antivaxmomma on Instagram, was charged along with 14 others as part of a scheme that peddled over 250 fake vaccination cards for $200 on Instagram. For an extra $250, co-conspirator Nadayza Barkley, who worked at a New York medical clinic, would allegedly enter the buyer’s name into the state’s digital database for New York’s digital vaccine pass.

Three Vermont state troopers, who have since resigned, are also under FBI investigation for running a fake vaccination card scheme.

Customs and Border Protection says it has seized thousands of fake vaccination cards coming into the US over the past few months.

Last month the agency uncovered a shipment from Shenzen, China to Memphis containing fake vaccine cards fraught with typos and misspelled words. CBP said it was the 15th such shipment of the night, though to all different cities, and none were even concealed inside their shipment container. CBP said Memphis alone had made 121 seizures totaling 3,017 of vaccination cards.

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Child porn purveyor to get 21-27 years under new plea deal

leesacardillo — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 13:04:14 +0000

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) – A man whom U.S. authorities have described as the world´s largest purveyor of child pornography would be sentenced to 21 to 27 years in prison under the terms of a new plea deal.

The deal between Eric Eoin Marques and Justice Department prosecutors is designed to satisfy a judge in Maryland who rejected their original agreement, which called for a prison sentence of 15 to 21 years.

Defense attorneys outlined the new terms in a court filing on Friday.

They said a 21-year prison sentence would be “fair and just” for Marques.

Marques’ lawyers also urged U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang to impose a condition of supervised release that would allow Marques to live in Ireland, his home nation, after he completes his prison sentence.

Marques, who was 35 in May, is scheduled to enter his updated plea agreement and be sentenced next week.

Chuang isn´t bound by the sentencing recommendation.

During a hearing in May, Chuang described the initial plea agreement as “too flawed” and said he was inclined to give Marques a longer sentence than 15 to 21 years. The judge criticized a provision of the plea deal that wouldn´t give Marques credit for darknet market list six years he spent in custody in Ireland while fighting extradition after his 2013 arrest in Dublin. Chuang said he can´t tell the federal Bureau of Prisons to refrain from counting those years when Marques likely is entitled to get credit for that time.

“It´s not going to be 21 minus 6 to 15. That´s not going to happen,” the judge said.

The new plea deal calls for Marques to receive credit for the time served.

Marques, a dual citizen of the U.S.

and Ireland, pleaded guilty in February 2020 to creating and operating a web hosting service called “Freedom Hosting” on the darknet market between 2008 and 2013.

The darknet market is part of the internet but hosted within an encrypted network. It is accessible only through anonymity-providing tools.

Marques’ service enabled users to anonymously access millions of illicit images and videos, Tor Drug Market many depicting the rape and torture of infants and toddlers.

Investigators found what appeared to be more than 8.5 million images and videos of child pornography on the Freedom Hosting server, according to a court filing that accompanied Marques´ guilty plea.

Marques was living in Ireland dark web marketplaces at the time of the offenses.

He was extradited to Maryland in March 2019. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to advertise child pornography.

In an April court filing, a prosecutor dark market url darknet market said a government witness was prepared to testify that investigators had identified Marques as the largest purveyor of child pornography in the world and that he had made approximately $3.6 million in U.S.

currency from his servers.

Marques’ lawyers say he made money from his legitimate web-hosting services, not Freedom Hosting.

“Though the contents of many of the websites it hosted were despicable and unlawful, the evidence shows that Freedom Hosting was a free service until just before Mr. Marques´ arrest,” they wrote in Friday’s filing.

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First Silk Road. Now AlphaBay. What’s next for the dark web?

priscilla60v — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 11:04:07 +0000

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A government shutdown of dark web marketplaces AlphaBay and Hansa has merchants and consumers looking for a new home.

Authorities , the largest online marketplace for illegal goods, on July 4, and took down Hansa, the third largest, on Thursday. The sites, where people could buy drugs, guns and child pornography, had flourished since 2014, when a predecessor, Silk Road, was shut down.

Fueled by Tor browsers and cryptocurrencies that offer anonymity, AlphaBay, Hansa and other sites avoided much government detection, allowing in the wake of Silk Road’s demise. AlphaBay replaced as the biggest, growing to be 10 times larger.

When one dark darknet market falls, dark market 2024 buyers and sellers just move on to the next one.

The migration of buyers and sellers comes as authorities around the world crack down on digital marketplaces that cater to growing numbers of shadowy sales. at the time it was taken offline. By comparison, Silk Road had just 14,000 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed it four years ago.

Many of the sites . A recent study by the University of Manchester and think tank Rand Europe found 811 arms-related listings on . The researchers found nearly 60% of the weapons came from the US and most of the sales were headed to Europe. Worryingly, one gun bought on a cryptomarket was used in a .

FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe acknowledged shutting down such markets was like playing whack-a-mole. His agency would likely have to in the future, he said.

“Critics will say as we shutter one site, another will emerge,” McCabe said at a press conference. “But that is the nature of criminal work. It never goes away, you have to constantly keep at it, and you have to use every tool in your toolbox.”

One such tool: using a captured marketplace as a trap.

After the fall of AlphaBay, Dutch police said they saw traffic heading to Hansa spike eight-fold. That was something the cops were anticipating.

Dutch police had full control of Hansa on June 20, but waited a month before shutting it down hoping to catch the new users in marketplace chaos.

“We could identify and disrupt the regular criminal activity that was happening on Hansa darknet market but also sweep up all of those new users that were displaced from AlphaBay and looking for a new trading platform for their criminal activities,” Rob Wainwright, the Europol director, said at the press conference.

Dutch police now have the usernames, passwords and IP addresses of thousands of Hansa users, and are tracking them down.

An underground in flux

Dream Market seemed to be the next move for dark web vendors, but some question how reliable it is.

McAfee

The ploy has dark web darknet market users on edge. Many are concerned about whether the next available platform will be compromised as well. That has them questioning Dream Market, a marketplace that’s been in business since 2013 and benefitted from the shutdown of rivals.

“After the closure of the AlphaBay market, many vendors expressed that they were moving their operations to Hansa and Dream Market,” Liv Rowley, an analyst at Flashpoint, darkmarket url said. “The shuttering of Hansa now leaves Dream the only remaining major option.”

Rowley noticed chatter on forums and subreddits pointing to Dream Market as the next AlphaBay, but people are wary after the Dutch police ploy.

Reddit users on several threads have expressed concerns the website has been compromised in a similar fashion. A user who speculated Hansa had been compromised in a thread posted returned on Thursday to warn that .

“This is a warning you will want to heed,” the user, who goes by , posted. “They are waiting to gather as many refugees from AB & Hansa as they can and then drop the hammer.”

Other marketplaces, like Tochka and Valhalla, could also rise in the vacuum AlphaBay and Hansa have left. Some smaller dark web darknet markets 2024 are even appealing to those lost in AlphaBay’s shake-up.

Security company was offering vendors from AlphaBay a discount if they moved to their platform.

“The entire illegal underground is in flux right now,” Flashpoint’s Rowley said.

It’ll be quiet on the dark web until people can find a reliable marketplace again, but eventually they will, said Emily Wilson, the director of analysis at Terbium Labs.

She called the busts a “sizable hiccup” but not “an irreversible blow.”

It’s unclear who’ll emerge from the fallout. But the FBI estimates that more than 40,000 merchants are looking for a place to sell. And there are more than 200,000 customers looking for places to buy stuff they can’t get on Amazon.

With AlphaBay, the Amazon of illegal goods, now shut down, the market is fragmenting. If you want malware, there’s a market for that on the dark web. The same for guns and for drugs. So business will go on, albeit less conveniently.

“For now, there are plenty of smaller and more specialized markets for vendors and buyers to continue trading,” Wilson said.

First published July 21, 8 a.m. ET

Update, 5:04 p.m.: Adds background on scope of the markets, weapons sales.

: Online abuse is as old as the internet and it’s only getting worse. It exacts a very real toll.

: CNET chronicles tech’s role in providing new kinds of accessibility.

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German police make arrests over massive child pornography website

susanadarosa2 — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 07:04:42 +0000

BERLIN, May 3 (Reuters) – German police have uncovered one of the world’s largest underground websites for dark web sites child pornography with more than 400,000 users and arrested four people connected to the platform, onion dark web marketplaces website prosecutors said on Monday.

The “BOYSTOWN” platform has existed since at least June 2019 and was only accessible via the so-called darknet market, the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office and dark darknet market list the BKA Federal Police said in a statement.

The website has more than 400,000 users and was used for the worldwide exchange of child pornography.

It enabled members to retrieve child pornography content and exchange footage with each other in chat areas as well as via voice channels.

“Among the images and video recordings shared were also recordings of the most severe sexual abuse of young children,” prosecutors said.

Police arrested three main suspects, who are accused of operating and maintaining the platform, during raids on seven properties in mid-April.

The suspects are a 40-year-old man living in Paderborn in western Germany, a 49-year-old man from the Munich area and a 58-year-old man from northern Germany who has been living in South America for several years, police said.

A fourth man, a 64-year-old from Hamburg, has also been arrested on suspicion of having registered as a member of the platform in July 2019 and dark market list having posted over 3,500 contributions on the site, making him one of the most active users.

Following the raids, the BOYSTOWN platform has been taken down, police said.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Irish health system struggling to recover from cyberattack

leesacardillo — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 06:04:05 +0000

LONDON (AP) – Ireland´s health system was still struggling to restore its computers and treat patients on Tuesday, four days after it shut down its entire IT system in response to a cyberattack.

Thousands of diagnostic appointments, cancer treatment clinics and surgeries have been canceled or dark market 2024 web link delayed since a ransomware attack on Friday.
Authorities said hundreds of people have been deployed to tackle the attack, but it could be weeks before the health service can return to normal.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday that the attack was a “heinous” one that targeted patients and “the Irish public.” Health Service Executive chief clinical officer Colm Henry said the attack had had “a profound impact on our ability to deliver care,” and that the disruptions would undoubtedly “mount in the coming days and weeks.”

More than 2,000 patient-facing IT systems are affected, with around 80,000 devices linked to such systems throughout the health service, Henry told Irish broadcaster RTE.

Authorities are prioritizing systems involving direct patient care diagnostics, darknet market list such as radiology, radiotherapy and maternity and newborn services.

“That´s what our experts are focusing on this week, with external help, to ensure those services are not reliant on manual exchange of information,” he said.

Ransomware attacks are typically carried out by criminal hackers who scramble data, paralyzing victims´ networks, and demand a large payment to decrypt it.

Irish officials say a ransom has been demanded but they will not pay it.

Conti, a Russian-speaking ransomware group, was demanding $20 million, according to the ransom negotiation page on its darknet market site viewed by The Associated Press. The gang threatened Monday to “start publishing and selling your private information very soon” if the money was not paid.

“The government will not be paying any money,” Justice Minister Heather Humphreys told RTE.

“We will not be blackmailed.”

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine urged people not to turn up at hospitals’ emergency departments unless they have a genuinely urgent need to do so. It said that electronic ordering of blood tests, Dark web market list X-rays and scans is not available, and clinicians have no access to previous X-rays or scan results.
Many hospitals’ telephone systems are also not functioning because they are carried on computer networks, it added.

Patients have described their frustration about the attack, describing it as another torment thrown into the already difficult struggle to face illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eimear Cregg, 38, darknet market lists a primary school teacher who is fighting breast cancer, had radiation therapy briefly postponed while doctors sought to restore her records so they could treat her properly.

“This is a very cruel thing to do to vulnerable people,´´ she told The Associated Press. “We´re fighting every day as it is and this was just another curve ball that wasn´t needed.´´

The Health Service Executive said in a statement late Monday that there were “serious concerns about the implications for patient care arising from the very limited access to diagnostics, lab services and historical patient records.”

The attack has also shut down the system used to pay health care workers.

The health service said it was working methodically to assess and restore its computer systems.

“Our priority is keeping our patients safe and maintaining essential care and support services,” it said.

Ransomware attacks are an increasing problem for dark web market links private companies and public bodies around the world.

T he Thai affiliate of Paris-based insurance company AXA and a public health provider in New Zealand were both dealing with ransomware attacks on Tuesday.

In the U.S., the nation´s largest fuel pipeline was hit with a ransomware attack earlier this month.

The disruption of the Colonial Pipeline caused long lines at gas stations due to distribution problems and panic-buying, Tor Drug market draining supplies at thousands of gas stations.

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Darknet crypto kingpin JokerStash retires after illicit $1 billion…

bernardowestgart — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 05:04:11 +0000

By Tom Wilson

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – The kingpin or kingpins of the world’s biggest illicit credit card marketplace have retired after making an estimated fortune of over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, according to research by blockchain analysis firm Elliptic shared with Reuters.

The “Joker’s Stash” marketplace, where stolen credit cards and identity data traded hands for bitcoin and other digital coins, ceased operations this month, Elliptic said on Friday, in what it called a rare example of such a site bowing out on its own terms.

Criminal use of cryptocurrencies has long worried regulators, with U.S.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde calling last month for tighter oversight.

While terrorist financing and money laundering are top of law-enforcement concerns, narcotics, fraud, scams and ransomware are among the chief areas of illegal use of digital currencies, according to Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson.

Joker’s Stash was launched in 2014, with its anonymous founder “JokerStash” – which could be one or darkmarket url more people – posting messages in both Russian and English, Elliptic said.

It was available on the regular web and via the darknet market, which hosts marketplaces selling contraband.

The darknet market, or darkweb, is a part of the internet that isn’t visible to regular search engines, and requires a form of browser that hides a user’s identity to access.

Elliptic, whose clients include law-enforcement agencies and financial firms, estimates that JokerStash raked in more than $1 billion in profits in cryptocurrencies over the years, at current prices.

Bitcoin has soared from just over $300 in 2014 to hit a record $49,000 on Friday, pulling up other coins in its wake.

The blockchain firm reached the over $1 billion figure by analysing the marketplace’s revenue and the fees it charged, and said it was at the lower end of its estimates.

In December, Interpol and the FBI seized the domain names used by the site, but it continued operating via the darknet market list, Elliptic said website Cyber-security firm Digital Shadows also said in December that the darknet market site remained live after the seizure.

Interpol did not respond to a request for comment.

The FBI could not be reached outside regular business hours.

Trading illegal credit cards is “a billion-dollar business,” said Robinson. “It’s also providing a means of cashing out other types of cyber-criminality.”

On Jan. 15. Joker’s Stash posted a message announcing it would close permanently on Feb.
15. In fact it went offline on Feb. 3, Elliptic said.

“Joker goes on a well-deserved retirement,” said the message, which Reuters saw a screenshot of. “It’s time for us to leave forever.”

Accompanying it was a picture of the 1862 painting “Sta´nczyk” by Polish artist Jan Matejko, darknet market markets links which depicts a court jester sitting forlornly in a bedroom as a party goes on in the background.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Pravin Char)

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German police take down one of the world's biggest child porn sites

antoineblau3824 — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 02:04:15 +0000

German police have taken down one of the world’s largest child porn sites with over 400,000 members and arrested four people accused of running it.

The site, onion dark website known as BOYSTOWN and accessible only via the so-called Darkweb, had existed since July 2019 and darknet markets onion address was used for the worldwide exchange of child porn.

Investigators spent months probing the site and those behind it, before arresting three main suspects along with a fourth man in raids last month.

German police have taken down a child porn site with over 400,00 members and arrested four men in connection with running it (file image)

Officers say the main suspects are a 40-year-old from Paderborn, a 49-year-old from Munich and a 58-year-old from northern Germany who had been living in Paraguay for dark market web darknet market many years – all of whom are accused of operating the site.

The fourth man, a 64-year-old from Hamburg, is accused of uploading more than 3,500 images and videos to the site since becoming a member in 2019 – making him one of the most prolific contributors.

Police said the site was designed to allow the international exchange of child abuse material by its members, mainly focusing on the abuse of young boys.

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‘Among the images and video recordings shared were also recordings of the most severe sexual abuse of young children,’ prosecutors said.

Members were also able to speak with one-another via chat areas of the website and voice channels.

Officers say the three main suspects also provided members with instructions on anonymous surfing to minimize the risk of detection.

The site was detected by a task for Dark Market 2024 set up in Germany, but aided by investigators in the Netherlands, darkmarket Sweden, dark web market list Australia, the United States and Canada.

Following the raids and arrests, the BOYSTOWN platform has been taken down, police added.

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The dark web knows too much about me

dyanz53658614687 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:04:13 +0000

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What do Dunkin’ Donuts, Fortnite, dark web sites Sprint and the Dow Jones company all have in common? They’ve all suffered from massive hacks in 2019 alone.

After every data breach, victim data often surfaces on the encrypted “hidden” internet known as the , a network of sites that can only be accessed with . Dark web markets operate like the ecommerce websites we shop on every day, darknet market links but often trade in illicit goods like drugs, weapons and stolen data.