3 teens behind internet crime forum Gh0stMarket get jail

The Guardian reports that three UK teenagers who created and ran "one of the world's largest English-language internet crime forums," described in court as "Crimebook", have been sentenced to up to 5 years in jail. Authorities estimated that losses from credit card data traded over Gh0stMarket.net totaled more than $26 million dollars. Threatening to blow up the head of the police unit in charge of internet crimes after an earlier arrest was probably an unwise move:

webber.jpg

The web forum, which had 8,000 members worldwide, has been linked to hundreds of thousands of pounds of registered losses on 65,000 bank accounts. Nicholas Webber, the site's owner and founder, was arrested in October 2009 with the site's administrator, Ryan Thomas, after trying to pay a £1,000 hotel bill using stolen card details. They were then 18 and 17. Webber was jailed for five years on Wednesday and Thomas for four years.

After seizing Webber's laptop, police discovered details of 100,000 stolen credit cards and a trail back to the Gh0stMarket website. Webber and Thomas jumped bail that December, fleeing to Majorca, but were rearrested when they flew back to Gatwick airport on 31 January 2010.

Southwark crown court was told how public-school-educated Webber, the son of a former Guernsey politician, was using an offshore bank account in Costa Rica to process funds from the frauds. After his initial arrest, Webber threatened on a forum to blow up the head of the police e-crimes unit in retaliation, and used his hacking skills to trace officers' addresses.


Image: Nicholas Webber, who will spend the next five years in jail. Photograph: Gavin Rodgers, via Guardian.

Teenagers jailed for running £16m internet crime forum
(Guardian, via Brian Krebs)