‘World’s worst’ credit card fraudster under arrest

A MAN the US deemed one of the world’s worst credit card traffickers has been arrested.

Vladislav Horohorin, 27, from Moscow with dual Israeli and Ukrainian nationality, was arrested in Nice, France, on a US warrant as he prepared to board a flight to Moscow.

He is believed to be behind one of the world’s most sophisticated internet sites for trafficking stolen credit card information.

Horohorin was indicted by a US federal grand jury in November 2009 on charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted on all counts, he could face 12 years in prison and fines of $500,000 (€390,000).

The US believes he is one of the founders of CarderPlanet, a criminal internet forum on which stolen credit card data are sold.

“The network created by the founders of CarderPlanet, including Vladislav Horohorin, remains one of the most sophisticated organisations of online financial criminals in the world,” said US Secret Service assistant director for investigations Michael Merritt.

“This network has been repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the international law enforcement community.”

Using the alias ‘BadB’ he advertised the availability of stolen credit card data on web forums, and to make payments through internet financial services including Webmoney, an online currency service hosted in Russia, the US states.

Aassistant attorney general Lanny Breuer said: “As this and so many other cases demonstrate, working hand in hand with our partners around the globe, we will do everything in our power to bring these criminals to the United States to answer for their alleged crimes.”

Horohorin allegedly used online criminal forums such as CarderPlanet, carder.su, and badb.biz to sell stolen credit card data, known as “dumps”. Badb.biz welcomes visitors with a cartoon portraying Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin awarding gold medals to cyber-criminals.