A 37-year-old man from New York has been sentenced to 4 years in jail for purchasing stolen bank card data and dealing in cahoots with a cybercrime cartel generally known as the Infraud Group.
John Telusma, who glided by the alias “Peterelliot,” pleaded responsible to at least one rely of racketeering conspiracy on October 13, 2021. He joined the gang in August 2011 and remained a member for five-and-a-half years.
“Telusma was among the many most prolific and energetic members of the Infraud Group, buying and fraudulently utilizing compromised bank card numbers for his personal private achieve,” the U.S. Justice Division (DoJ) mentioned.
Infraud, a transnational cybercrime behemoth, operated for greater than seven years, promoting its actions underneath the slogan “In Fraud We Belief,” earlier than its on-line infrastructure was dismantled by U.S. regulation enforcement authorities in February 2018.
The rogue enterprise dabbled within the large-scale acquisition and sale of compromised bank card knowledge, personally identifiable data, and different digital contraband, enabling the commerce of greater than 4 million stolen credit score and debit card numbers.
“The group directed visitors and potential purchasers to the automated merchandising websites of its members, which served as on-line conduits to visitors in stolen technique of identification, stolen monetary and banking data, malware, and different illicit items,” the DoJ mentioned on the time.
“It additionally supplied an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital foreign money transactions amongst its members and employed screening protocols that purported to make sure solely top quality distributors of stolen playing cards, personally identifiable data, and different contraband had been permitted to promote to members,” it added.
The group is estimated to have triggered at least $568 million in losses to shoppers, companies, and monetary establishments alike.
Telusma is the 14th member of the Infraud Group to be sentenced in reference to the Infraud scheme. Different co-conspirators embrace Sergey Medvedev, Marko Leopard, Valerian Chiochiu, David Jonathan Vargas, Pius Sushil Wilson, Gennaro Fioretti, Jose Gamboa, Aldo Ymeraj, and Taimoor Zaman.
