BidenCash darknet forum taken down by US, Dutch law enforcement

Nearly 145 domains associated with the BidenCash cybercriminal marketplace were taken down on Wednesday in a law enforcement operation led by U.S. and Dutch authorities.

BidenCash, which appropriated the name and image of the former U.S. president, has existed since 2022 and was used primarily as a way to sell stolen credit card numbers, compromised credentials and personal information.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said that at its peak, the platform had more than 117,000 customers and generated $17 million in revenue from the sale of about 15 million payment card numbers and troves of personal information.

Several domains associated with the site have been replaced with splash images showing the insignias of the DOJ, FBI, U.S. Secret Service and the Dutch High Tech Crime Unit.

"Between October 2022 and February 2023, the BidenCash marketplace published 3.3 million individual stolen credit cards for free to promote the use of their services," the DOJ said in a statement. 

"The stolen data included credit card numbers, expiration dates, Card Verification Value (CVV) numbers, account holder names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers."

As of Wednesday afternoon, several BidenCash domains were reachable online. The Justice Department and FBI did not respond to requests for comment about whether any arrests were conducted as part of the operation.

Court documents show the Justice Department also seized some cryptocurrency as part of the operation.

Researchers have long warned about BidenCash, which started out offering more than 1 million stolen card numbers in October 2022.