DARKMARK

Within DarkMarket itself there were three quite well-defined circles
involved in the project. The first were the administrators, moderators
and others holding senior 'bureaucratic' positions on the site. These
tended to be men with advanced hacking skills and certainly fluent
computer skills. Furthermore, with the exception of Cha0, they were
either not making large sums of money or were working directly as
police agents or as confidential informants.

Beyond this, the second circle mostly comprised skilful experienced
criminals who worked largely on their own - like Freddybb and
RedBrigade. They demonstrated varying degrees of computing ability
and, if they themselves were unable to solve a technical problem, they
always knew people who could. These individuals were less conspicuous
on boards like DarkMarket than the administrators and their crew.
Their aim was to make as much money as possible without drawing
attention to themselves, although they, too, would occasionally engage
in banter and chat about the carding community as a whole.

The third circle was home to highly professional criminals who were
virtually invisible - unknown except by myth and reputation to the
police and their fellow carders. These were people even beyond major
wholesalers of credit cards and malware - such as the Ukrainian Maksik,
arrested by Turkey's cybercrime team in Antalya in 2007. The most
famous one (who, it is believed, supplied Maksik with much of his
material) is the Russian known simply as Sim, who, police assume, is
actually another very efficient syndicate. These are people who never
emerge from the shadows.

Cha0 was fascinating and important because this was the first time
that an outfit resembling traditional organised crime had involved itself
in large-scale cybercrime and sought to influence the workings of a
website like DarkMarket. This was the first real proof that cybercrime
was no longer the domain of second-class citizens alone - it was begin-
ning to attract some bigger figures.

Organised crime has traditionally played a huge role in Turkey. For
example, in combination with Kurdish and some other Balkan groups,
Turkish gangs dominate the wholesale heroin trade throughout Western
Europe.

In late 1996 an armoured Mercedes was involved in a spectacular
road accident in the small town of Susurluk. Among the dead were
the Chief of the Police Academy and the leader of the right-wing terror