The United State's FBI officers<a href="https://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/firsov-indictment.pdf"> arrested</a> a Russian citizen, Mr Kirill Victorovich Firsov under alleged Russian cyber-crime charges. Mr. Firsov was detained on March 7 as he had just arrived in JFK New York City airport. His company, Deer.io is always being investigated for selling stolen credentials on an online platform. The California Court revealed this on 9th March and Firsov will be facing charges later this week.

Deer.io became public in 2016 as an underground marketplace specializing in stolen goods. A famous hacker, Tessa88 had used the platform to sell sensitive data hacked from Myspace and LinkedIn.

The documents unsealed before the court show that Firsov is the founder of deer.io. An online platform, that hosted more than 24,000 stores for selling hacked usernames and passwords for a variety of top online marketers. Deer.IO has been offering illegal services in exchange for Bitcoins. To date, it has accumulated an estimate of $17 million since it began. Some of Firsov charges include Aiding and Abetting fraud through his site.
<h2>How was he caught?</h2>
The website in question has a platform called Storefront where personal identification materials and stolen credentials used for theft and hacking services are sold. On March 4, the FBI decided to buy 1100 gamer accounts worth $20 from the storefront to confirm if the site is legal.

After reviewing over 250 storefronts, many compromised accounts were found. Some including video game accounts and PII files. The PII files contain user names, dates of birth, passwords, U.S. Social Security Numbers, and victim addresses.

According to the indictment on Firsov, there are a number of clues that link Firsov as the mastermind behind deer.io. Indeed, one of the early adopters of deer.io was a shop called Dedushka, a service offering fake accounts that were common among criminals involved in numerous online dating scams.

Secondly, Deer.IO was advertised on Antichat, a Russian public hacking site by one Isis. Using the username"Firsov" Isis often posted all the hacking competitions he had won. Firsov also tweeted about competing and winning several hacking competitions at the Positive Hack Days (PHDays) in Moscow.

Moreover, the same email address (hm@mail.ru) used to register Isis on several<a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/greece-to-arrest-russian-cyber-criminal-for-money-laundering/"> cybercrime forums</a>, is the same one used to register accounts on social media in the name of Kirill Firsov. In addition, this site helped in facilitating the sale of hacked accounts in video streaming services like Hulu, Netflix and social media.

The FBI says that this platform is running no legitimate business and is posing as a great risk to users privacy.

According to Mr Firsov- when explaining his business to ZDNet in 2016- Deer.io works according to the laws of Russia. They block shops that steal bank accounts and sell drugs. His clients can also create shops that do not violate laws and will block any shop if requested by the authorities of the Russian Federation.
<h2>How does it work?</h2>
In conclusion, the black market entrepreneurs pay $12.50 to Firsov in<a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/bitcoin-related-google-searches-increases-up-to-33-in-past-week/"> Bitcoins (BTC)</a> or via Web Money to gain access. They sell items like user passwords, fake social media accounts, birth certificates and tax returns on the platform.

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FBI Arrest Deer.io Founder Over Cyber-Crime Allegations

The United State's FBI officers arrested a Russian citizen, Mr. Kirill Victorovich Firsov under alleged Russian cyber-crime charges. Mr. Firsov was....%

I'm a believer in decentralization. An enthusiastic author, web geek &amp; writer with experience writing for tech, digital, and cryptocurrency blogs.

FBI Arrest Deer.io Founder Over Cyber-Crime Allegations

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