Kirill Victorovich Firsov, alleged owner of the Russian anonymous market Deer.io, was arrested by officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
Court documents claim that Firsov is the key person behind Deer.io – a site that offered services on darknet in exchange for bitcoin on the regular site. The FBI estimates it has allowed sales worth more than $ 17 million. Firsov will be sentenced in New York later this week, where he is expected to face fines for trafficking in stolen information and for help and guidance on illicit trafficking.
Since 2013, Deer.io has operated 24,000 active stores specializing in stolen information and offers businesses on the black market a simple turnkey solution. Sellers paid about 800 Russian rubles ($ 12.50) each month to operate on Deer.io, while hosting offered on private Russian servers is out of reach of the US authorities. The fees were paid to the company in Bitcoin (BTC) or through the Russian payment platform WebMoney. Of the 250 Deer.io stores that the FBI has investigated so far, no single business was legitimate.
Items for sale on the platform included user passwords, fake social media accounts, and sensitive identification data such as birth certificates and tax returns. During its investigation, the FBI made several purchases using the Deer platform, including 999 documents containing personally identifiable information (PII) from one vendor for $ 170 in bitcoins. For the $ 20 in crypto, the FBI was able to pick up usernames and passwords for 1,100 compromised gaming accounts.
