Vitalii Chychasov made millions of dollars running an online marketplace that sold stolen Social Security numbers belonging to U.S. citizens. The Social Security numbers, along with names and dates of birth, were sold through a website dubbed the SSNDOB Marketplace. Social Security Number Date Of Birth. No questions what is being sold here! And selling it did. SSNDOB earned more than $19 million from sales over the years. Chychasov, a Ukranian national personally earned at least $5 million as an administrator of the marketplace that was established in August 2017.
It’s unclear who the buyers were. Of course. Fraudsters don’t keep buyer information! When a person’s Social Security number is stolen, whoever possesses it can potentially (we really mean definitely) commit fraud, such as tax fraud, unemployment insurance fraud, loan fraud, and credit card fraud. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. 2024 is as limited as the people using your identity. The SSNDOB marketplace is no longer in operation after the FBI and IRS seized its domain in June 2022. Good news for anyone whose identity wasn’t posted on that site. Too late for those whose identities were bought from that site for pennies.
As part of Chychasov’s sentencing, the court ordered the forfeiture of $5 million, the profits he made, and ordered him to give up his interest in the online marketplace’s domain names: BLACKJOB.BIZ, SSNDOB.CLUB, SSNDOB.VIP, and SSNDOB.WS. Bought for future fraud endeavors? During the sentencing, Chychasov asked the court to consider the 19 months he has served. Chychasov has family that lives in Ukraine who desperately need his “assistance, guidance, and love” while suffering the consequences of being in a country being destroyed by Russian army’s daily bombing. On November 28, 2023, Chychasov was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Maybe he should have considered his family needs before ruining the lives of over twenty-four million Americans.
Outstanding job by the F.B.I.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Admin of $19M marketplace that sold social security numbers gets 8 years in jail” published by The Register on November 30, 2023
A Ukrainian national is facing an eight year prison sentence for running an online marketplace that sold the personal data of approximately 24 million US citizens.
Vitalii Chychasov, 37, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud and trafficking in unauthorized access devices. In addition to the prison sentence he will forfeit $5 million in assets, the proceeds of fraud, and his control of the various marketplace domains.
Attempting to enter Hungary at the time, Chychasov was arrested in March 2022 for running the SSNDOB Marketplace, which stands for “social security number, date of birth” and operated over various domains including blackjob.biz, ssndob.club, ssndob.vip, and ssndob.ws.
