Over 300,000 Social Security numbers found up for sale on the dark web, feds say
A Ukraine national is accused of participating in a scheme to sell the Social Security numbers of hundreds of thousands of Americans, along with the stolen usernames and passwords of computer servers for hospitals, federal government infrastructures, universities and more across the country.
Now, the man faces prison time.
Glib Oleksandr Ivanov-Tolpintsev, 28, from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, has been sentenced to federal prison on charges of conspiring to traffic in unauthorized access devices and computer passwords, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Adrian E. Burden, Ivanov-Tolpintsev’s defense attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 13.
‘The Marketplace’
Starting in 2014 and through 2019, the “Marketplace,” a dark web website, was used to try selling the login credentials to compromised computer softwares, as well as personally identifiable information of hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, court documents obtained by McClatchy News show.
Specifically, the site promoted for sale the usernames and passwords of computer servers as well as the date of birth and social security number of at least 333,000 U.S. residents, prosecutors said.
The “Marketplace” put over 700,000 compromised servers for sale — with at least 150,000 in the United States and 8,000 in Florida, court documents show.
Once sold, the servers were then used to commit illegal activities such as ransomware attacks and tax fraud, court documents state.
Prosecutors said the “Marketplace” targeted “local, state and federal government infrastructure, hospitals, 911 and emergency services, call centers, major metropolitan transit authorities, accounting and law firms, pension funds and universities” across the world.
Ivanov-Tolpintsev became a “seller” on the “Marketplace” in January 2017 after the Ukrainian national told the site’s administrators he could steal over 2,000 login credentials for computers every week, court documents show.
Within a month in 2017, Ivanov-Tolpintsev listed about 6,704 servers for sale on the site under the username “Mars,” court documents state.
Prosecutors said buyers paid at least $82,648 for servers put for sale by Ivanov-Tolpintsev.
The website was shut down after federal authorities seized the domain in January 2019.
While the exact amount of fraud done by the “Marketplace” is unknown, prosecutors say, buyers have used servers purchased from the site to “perpetrate in excess of $100 million in stolen identity fraud.”
The man was arrested in October 2020 in Korczowa, Poland, and was extradited to the U.S.
On Feb. 22, Ivanov-Tolpintsev pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme.
In a memorandum filed in support of his client, Burden said Ivanov-Tolpintsev listed 6,704 servers for sale on the site — which represent less than 1% of the total servers listed on the “Marketplace.”
Burden said the Ukraine national had no criminal history prior to this case and asked for a prison time ranging between 18 and 24 months.
On May 12, Ivanov-Tolpintsev was sentenced to four years in federal prison, according to the release. The man was also ordered to pay back $82,648 — which represents the proceeds he’s accused of gaining from the scheme.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Over 300,000 Social Security numbers found up for sale on the dark web, feds say."
