The U.S. authorities this week put a $10 million bounty on a Russian man who for the previous 18 years operated Try2Check, one of many cybercrime underground’s most trusted companies for checking the validity of stolen bank card knowledge. U.S. authorities say 43-year-old Denis Kulkov‘s card-checking service made him a minimum of $18 million, which he used to purchase a Ferrari, Land Rover, and different luxurious gadgets.
Denis Kulkov, a.ok.a. “Nordex,” in his Ferrari. Picture: USDOJ.
Launched in 2005, Try2Check quickly was processing greater than 1,000,000 card-checking transactions monthly — charging 20 cents per transaction. Cybercriminals turned to companies like this after buying stolen bank card knowledge from an underground store, with an eye fixed towards minimizing the variety of playing cards which are inactive by the point they’re put to felony use.
Try2Check was so dependable that it will definitely grew to become the official card-checking service for a number of the underground’s most bustling crime bazaars, together with Vault Market, Unicc, and Joker’s Stash. Clients of those carding retailers who selected to make use of the store’s built-in (however a-la-carte) card checking service from Try2Check might anticipate automated refunds on any playing cards that have been discovered to be inactive or canceled on the time of buy.
Many established stolen card retailers will enable prospects to request refunds on lifeless playing cards based mostly on official experiences from trusted third-party checking companies. However basically, the larger retailers have steered prospects towards utilizing their very own white-labeled model of the Try2Check service — primarily to assist reduce disputes over canceled playing cards.
On Wednesday, Could 3, Try2Check’s web sites have been changed with a website seizure discover from the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Division of Justice, as prosecutors within the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment and search warrant naming Denis Gennadievich Kulkov of Samara, Russia because the proprietor.
Try2Check’s login pages have been changed with a seizure discover from U.S. regulation enforcement.
On the similar time, the U.S. Division of State issued a $10 million reward for info resulting in the arrest or conviction of Kulkov. In November 2021, the State Division started offering up to to $10 million for the title or location of any key leaders of REvil, a serious Russian ransomware gang.
As famous within the Secret Service’s criminal complaint (PDF), the Try2Check service was first marketed on the closely-guarded Russian cybercrime discussion board Mazafaka, by somebody utilizing the deal with “KreenJo.” That deal with used the identical ICQ on the spot messenger account quantity (555724) as a Mazafaka denizen named “Nordex.”
In February 2005, Nordex posted to Mazafaka that he was available in the market for hacked financial institution accounts, and supplied 50 % of the take. He requested companions to contact him on the ICQ quantity 228427661 or on the electronic mail tackle [email protected]. As the federal government famous in its search warrant, Nordex exchanged messages with discussion board customers on the time figuring out himself as a then-24-year-old “Denis” from Samara, RU.
In 2017, U.S. regulation enforcement seized the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, and the Secret Service mentioned these data present {that a} Denis Kulkov from Samara equipped the username “Nordexin,” electronic mail tackle [email protected], and an tackle in Samara.
Investigators had already discovered Instagram accounts the place Kulkov posted photos of his Ferrari and his household. Authorities have been in a position to determine that Kulkov had an iCloud account tied to the tackle [email protected], and upon subpoenaing that discovered passport images of Kulkov, and effectively as extra images of his household and expensive vehicles.
Like many different prime cybercriminals based mostly in Russia or in international locations with favorable relations to the Kremlin, the proprietor of Try2Check was not significantly tough to hyperlink to a real-life id. In Kulkov’s case, it little question was essential to U.S. investigators that that they had entry to a wealth of non-public info tied to a cryptocurrency trade Kulkov had used.
Nevertheless, the hyperlink between Kulkov and Try2Check might be made — mockingly — based mostly on data which were plundered by hackers and printed on-line over time — together with Russian electronic mail companies, Russian authorities data, and hacked cybercrime boards.
NORDEX
Kulkov posing along with his passport, in a photograph authorities obtained by subpoenaing his iCloud account.
In line with cybersecurity agency Constella Intelligence, the tackle [email protected] was used to register an account with the username “Nordex” at bankir[.]com, a now defunct information web site that was nearly customary studying for Russian audio system excited by information about varied Russian monetary markets.
Nordex seems to have been a finance nerd. In his early days on the boards, Nordex posted a number of lengthy threads on his views in regards to the Russian inventory market and mutual fund investments.
That Bankir account was registered from the Web tackle 193.27.237.66 in Samara, Russia, and included Nordex’s date of delivery as April 8, 1980, in addition to their ICQ quantity (228427661).
Cyber intelligence agency Intel 471 discovered that Web tackle additionally was used to register the account “Nordex” on the Russian hacking discussion board Exploit again in 2006.
Constella tracked one other Bankir[.]com account created from that very same Web tackle underneath the username “Polkas.” This account had the identical date of delivery as Nordex, however a special electronic mail tackle: [email protected]. This and different “nordia@” emails shared a password: “anna59.”
NORDIA
[email protected] shares a number of passwords with [email protected], which Constella says was used to create an account at a spiritual web site for an Anna Kulikova from Samara. On the Russian dwelling furnishing retailer Westwing.ru, Ms. Kulikova listed her full title as Anna Vnrhoturkina Kulikova, and her tackle as 29 Kommunistrecheskya St., Apt. 110.
A search on that tackle in Constella brings up a report for an Anna Denis Vnrhoturkina Kulkov, and the cellphone quantity 879608229389.
Russian car registration data have additionally been hacked and leaked on-line over time. These data present that Anna’s Apt 110 tackle is tied to a Denis Gennadyvich Kulkov, born April 8, 1980.
The car Kolkov registered in 2015 at that tackle was a 2010 Ferrari Italia, with the license plate quantity K022YB190. The cellphone quantity related to this report — 79608229389 — is precisely like Anna’s, solely minus the (mis?)main “8”. That quantity is also tied to a now-defunct Fb account, and to the e-mail addresses [email protected] and [email protected].
Kulkov’s Ferrari has been photographed quite a few instances over time by Russian car aficionados, together with this one with the motive force’s face redacted by the photographer:
The Ferrari owned by Denis Kulkov, noticed in Moscow in 2016. Picture: Migalki.internet.
Because the title of this story suggests, the exhausting half for Western regulation enforcement isn’t figuring out the Russian cybercriminals who’re main gamers within the scene. Reasonably, it’s discovering inventive methods to seize high-value suspects if and once they do depart the safety that Russia usually extends to home cybercriminals inside its borders who don’t additionally hurt Russian corporations or shoppers, or intervene with state pursuits.
However Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine has prompted main fault traces to seem within the cybercrime underground: Cybercriminal syndicates that beforehand straddled Russia and Ukraine with ease have been pressured to reevaluate many comrades who have been immediately working for The Different Aspect.
Many cybercriminals who operated with impunity from Russia and Ukraine previous to the warfare selected to flee these international locations following the invasion, presenting worldwide regulation enforcement businesses with uncommon alternatives to catch most-wanted cybercrooks. A type of was Mark Sokolovsky, a 26-year-old Ukrainian man who operated the favored “Raccoon” malware-as-a-service providing; Sokolovsky was apprehended in March 2022 after fleeing Ukraine’s mandatory military service orders.
Additionally nabbed on the lam final yr was Vyacheslav “Tank” Penchukov, a senior Ukrainian member of a transnational cybercrime group that stole tens of millions of dollars over nearly a decade from countless hacked businesses. Penchukov was arrested after leaving Ukraine to fulfill up along with his spouse in Switzerland.
