SCRIPT REWRITE

Whatever the precise cause, the stuffing had been knocked out of CarderPlanet. The visionary website for hackers and crackers may have disappeared but its legacy was immense – it has revolutionised crimi- nality on the web.

Furthermore, large-scale cybercrime had already broken out of its Ukrainian origins. In the final two years of CarderPlanet the adminis- trators had encouraged the development of an English-language forum that had been running alongside the Russian discussion boards. This forum spread the Spirit of Odessa to hackers and carders the world over. Two of its members were novices, but they were intrigued by the new world of professional carding. One had adopted a jolly pirate as his avatar and the other an image from many geeks' favourite film: enter JiLsi and Matrix001.