More on Darkmarket, the Craigslist of Crime

It was always the case that if you wanted to strike up a conversation with an undercover policeman, you could walk into a bar and whisper that you were looking to hire a hitman. It turns out that this is true in cyberspace as well: Cybercrime Supersite 'DarkMarket' Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm

"Like earlier crime sites, DarkMarket allowed buyers and sellers of stolen identities and credit card data to meet and do business in an entrepreneurial, peer-reviewed environment. Products for sale ran the gamut from specialized hardware, to electronic banking logins collected from phishing attacks, stolen personal data needed to assume a consumer's identity ("full infos") and credit card magstripe swipes ("dumps), which are used to produce counterfeit cards. Vendors were encouraged to submit their goods for review before offering them for sale.
...the FBI used DarkMarket to build "intelligence briefs" on its members, complete with their internet IP addresses and details of their activities on the site. In at least some cases, the bureau matched the information with transaction records provided by the electronic currency service E-Gold."

In any event, the FBI went out in character. You can read the final closedown message here: 56 Arrested in DarkMarket Sting, Says FBI

HT to Steve Leider (who is on the market this year)