Carding site UniCC retires after generating $358 million in sales

UniCC, the largest carding site operating on the dark web at the moment, has announced its retirement, after reportedly generating $358 million in sales.

Along with UniCC, its “brother” LuxSocks is pulling the plug, leaving a significant void in the carding market.

Carding sites are dark web (usually) platforms where cyber-criminals sell credit/debit card data stolen by other hackers using credit card skimmers that infect legitimate websites or malware planted in PoS (point of sale) terminals.

Crooks buy these sets and exploit them by making fraudulent online purchases or forging clone cards (if magnetic strip data is available) to withdraw cash directly from ATMs.

A “final job”

Almost exactly a year ago, the most successful carding site in existence, “Joker’s Stash,” shut down voluntarily after claiming to have sold over $400 million worth of stolen card listings.

This created a vacuum in the carding space, which was quickly filled mainly by UniCC, a platform that has been active since 2013.

According to data from analysts at Elliptic, the field was dominated by UniCC in 2021, which received massive amounts of money in Bitcoin, Litcoin, Ether, and Dash as fees from the sales of stolen payment card information by its members.

In total, from 2013 until today, Elliptic estimates that UniCC has facilitated the sale of $358 million worth of illicit material, with tens of thousands of new cards being added to its platform every day.

The UniCC marketplace administrators announced that they are shutting down voluntarily and will not be launching a new platform.

Our team retires. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of us for years. To loyal partners, clients, and colleagues who assisted in many ways. I would separately thank each one, but it is not professional. If I or some of our team members failed your expectations – we are truly sorry.

Don’t build any conspiracy theories about us leaving. It is a weighted decision, we are not young, and our health does not allow us to work like this any longer. We give you 10 days to spend your balance (we will continue updates during this period).

To all the partners selling with us – do not worry, you will be paid up to the last cent. After that, UniCC and LuxSocks will leave forever. We ask you to be smart and not follow any fakes tied to our comeback and other things. Sincerely, your Unicc Team.

When large criminal entities shut down, it is common to wonder if there is a trend to be identified or if the field is going through uncertainty due to law enforcement action.

We can’t say if the carding space will go through a crisis now or not, but it may be a relatively new player named All World who fills the void left behind by UniCC.

Other notable dark web markets that announced voluntary exits recently are the White House, Cannazon, and Torrez.

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/carding-site-unicc-retires-after-generating-358-million-in-sales/