Security News > 2022 > January > 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 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 terminals.
Crooks buy these sets and exploit them by making fraudulent online purchases or forging clone cards to withdraw cash directly from ATMs. 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.
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.