A FAMILY AFFAIR

was content to observe and store information. They knew exactly who was who in the Odessa carding community.

Ironically, given that CarderPlanet and cyber criminals boasted a very different social, cultural and psychological profile from traditional crime syndicates, Script and his collaborators nonetheless chose to designate their membership structure by borrowing the terminology of the Sicilian mafia. Later, carders reflected that it was unwise to use such an obvious criminal metaphor, although in these early days the language also hinted at Script's specific psychological profile and his future ambition to lead a powerful social movement.

The most senior members (never more than six) belonged, then, to 'The Family', whose highest representatives or administrators were each entitled to the honorific 'Godfather'. Once these Family chiefs granted somebody admission into CarderPlanet, the member could explore the website's various sections. In one part, for example, he could browse through a whole raft of viruses on sale, which he could later use to launch a specific type of attack against other computer users. Virus writers also offered to write a piece of customised malware, for payment, that could infiltrate specific systems or programs.

Most activity took place on the Carders' Forum. In this department you could buy and sell stolen credit-card and bank-account data. 'In the course of his work,' Script explained, 'a carder can specialise in one or more areas of carding. But there's nobody who does everything. Sooner or later that carder will need someone else's services. That's why there's a place for the networks and groups – people exchange numbers and information. That could be bank accounts, complete information on card owners, sometimes even including passport details. Carders can also be part-time hackers, since sometimes you can't come up with the necessary information (without paying for it) unless you break into a server.'

In another department you could purchase a Western passport or, say, an American driver's licence. In most instances, the counterfeit documents were of the highest quality. But, as purchaser, how could you be certain of the quality of these fakes? And furthermore how could you be confident that the seller was not going to rip you off? After all, you already knew that the person you were buying from was a criminal! 'Rippers' – criminals who rip off criminals – were already an established presence on the Internet.