SSNOB Marketplace Admin Pleads Guilty
A Ukranian man pleaded guilty to his role in the operation of a series of websites called SSNDOB Marketplace that listed the personal information of millions of people for sale.
Vitalii Chychasov, 37, of Ukraine, admitted he conspired in the sale of the personal information of approximately 24 million people. Chychasov and his accomplices made more than $19 million from the sale of the stolen information.
According to court documents, investigators involved in the operation made an undercover purchase from ssndob.club in late May 2020.
Tracking the bitcoin used to make the purchase led the investigators to a wallet that had received 989 bitcoin between August 2017 and October 2021. The wallet had transferred approximately 45.99 of the bitcoin to a HitBTC account in 19 transactions.
Information acquired from HitBTC revealed that the receiving account belonged to Chychasov. Chychasov used his Ukranian passport to verify his identity when he opened the account.
Further investigations revealed that Chychasov had an account on Bitfinex under the username "ramashka." The account was linked to the email address [email protected]. This email address was used to register the ssnob.ws domain on November 4, 2015.
From August 2017 to September 2018, Chychasov's Bitfinex account received approximately 53.6 bitcoin from the SSNOB bitcoin wallet.
Forensic analysis of SSNOB's admin servers revealed that the administrators of the marketplace had installed a Jabber client. Some of the linked Jabbeer accounts include [email protected] and [email protected].
The servers also hosted multiple compressed files that contained stolen personal information. Each of the files had the information of exactly one million individuals.
The investigators seized the marketplace's domains, including ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club, and blackjob.biz on June 7, 2022.
Chychasov was arrested in March 2022 and extradited to the United States in July 2022. His co-conspirator, Sergey Pugach, was arrested in May 2022.
In addition to pleading guilty, Chychasov agreed to forfeit $5 million. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
The SSNOB Marketplace seizure banner
Vitalii Chychasov, 37, of Ukraine, admitted he conspired in the sale of the personal information of approximately 24 million people. Chychasov and his accomplices made more than $19 million from the sale of the stolen information.
According to court documents, investigators involved in the operation made an undercover purchase from ssndob.club in late May 2020.
Tracking the bitcoin used to make the purchase led the investigators to a wallet that had received 989 bitcoin between August 2017 and October 2021. The wallet had transferred approximately 45.99 of the bitcoin to a HitBTC account in 19 transactions.
Information acquired from HitBTC revealed that the receiving account belonged to Chychasov. Chychasov used his Ukranian passport to verify his identity when he opened the account.
Chychasov's passport
Further investigations revealed that Chychasov had an account on Bitfinex under the username "ramashka." The account was linked to the email address [email protected]. This email address was used to register the ssnob.ws domain on November 4, 2015.
From August 2017 to September 2018, Chychasov's Bitfinex account received approximately 53.6 bitcoin from the SSNOB bitcoin wallet.
Forensic analysis of SSNOB's admin servers revealed that the administrators of the marketplace had installed a Jabber client. Some of the linked Jabbeer accounts include [email protected] and [email protected].
The servers also hosted multiple compressed files that contained stolen personal information. Each of the files had the information of exactly one million individuals.
The investigators seized the marketplace's domains, including ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club, and blackjob.biz on June 7, 2022.
Chychasov was arrested in March 2022 and extradited to the United States in July 2022. His co-conspirator, Sergey Pugach, was arrested in May 2022.
In addition to pleading guilty, Chychasov agreed to forfeit $5 million. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
