- 20 million social security numbers were listed for sale on an online marketplace, authorities said.
- US agencies took down the network, which had made $19 million over several years, per the DOJ.
- The illegal network had servers in several countries and used bitcoin for payment, the DOJ said.
An online marketplace that listed more than 20 million Social Security numbers for sale and made $19 million in revenue has been taken down by US authorities, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
For years, the SSNDOB Marketplace sold personal information of people in the US — including names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers — and would advertise its services on dark web forums, the DOJ said in a statement.
US Attorney Roger Handberg and agents from the FBI and the IRS criminal investigation office took the network down through an international operation conducted alongside authorities from Cyprus and Latvia, per the statement.
The marketplace had operated under several domain names, which authorities also seized on Tuesday, it added.
The administrators of the sites ran servers in different countries to protect their anonymity and avoid the law, and would make their customers purchase the information through digital payment methods such as bitcoin, the DOJ said. No mention was made in the statement of whether the sites' operators were apprehended in the operation.
They would also provide customer support to their customers, the statement said, though it didn't provide further details.
"Identity theft can have a devastating impact on a victim's long-term emotional and financial health," said Darrel Waldon, the special agent in charge of the IRS' criminal investigation field office in Washington, D.C., in the statement.
Those who believe they've fallen victim to identity theft are advised to visit the Federal Trade Commission's one-stop website for help with such cases. Warning signs for identity theft include receiving bills for items you haven't bought, debt collection calls for loans you didn't open, and denials for loan applications, per US authorities.