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Europol on Thursday announced the shutdown of a clearnet marketplace called Manson Market that facilitated online fraud on a large scale.
The operation, led by German authorities, has resulted in the seizure of more than 50 servers associated with the service and the arrest of two suspects. More than 200 terabytes of digital evidence have been collected.
In addition, over 80 data storage devices, cell phones, computers, as well as cash and crypto assets worth more than €63,000 ($66,500) have been confiscated.
Manson Market (“manson-market[.]pw”) is believed to have launched in 2022 as a way to peddle sensitive information that was illegally obtained from victims as part of phishing and vishing (voice phishing) schemes.
One such criminal activity involved calling victims under the guise of bank employees to trick them into revealing their addresses and security answers. In another instance, a network of fake online shops was employed to deceive visitors into entering their payment information.
“The stolen data was traced back to a specialised online marketplace that operated as a central hub for the trade of illegally obtained information,” Europol said.
“The marketplace allowed its thousands of users to buy stolen data sorted by region and account balance. This customisation enabled criminals to carry out targeted fraud with greater efficiency.”
Manson Market has also been found to have a presence in Telegram, with one of the channels sharing credit card details, such as the number, expiration date, and the CVV code, for free every day. The channel, named freestuffbymanson, was set up on October 14, 2024.
The nations that took part in the joint law enforcement collaboration include Austria, Czechia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland.
The combined effort among various authorities saw a series of searches take place across Germany and Austria, with infrastructure linked to the marketplace dismantled in Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway.
A 27-year-old and a 37-year-old have been arrested in Germany and Austria, respectively, in connection with the operation. They are currently in pretrial detention.
Germany’s Hanover Police Department said around 57 victims have suffered losses exceeding €250,000 ($264,000) due to the sale and re-use of stolen banking and credit card information on the online bazaar.
The development comes amid a busy week of law enforcement actions that have taken down the Crimenetwork marketplace and the MATRIX messaging app used by criminals for drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering.
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