As a former blackhat and ID thief who used to spend a lot of time in "underground" chatrooms and forums this doesn't surprise me at all. This is a standard pattern LE follows. Start with small arrests, work your way up, get someone at the top level to be an informant, take everyone down. Works for any type of group.
This always works because people are foolish and too trusting. The best rule is to assume everyone is LE trying to catch you. That means never revealing info that can lead back to you, never telling anyone personal info, your general location (eg the weather), always using 7 proxies, etc.
People who don't break the law would probably be surprised how much personal info crackers give to their online "friends". Less so on fraud forums but it still happens.
As some other people mentioned read "Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground" for more info on how LE works. The FBI took over a few carding forums and Secret Service also had high level CIs.
> The best rule is to assume everyone is LE trying to catch you.
This sounds wise. But I'd argue that it's wiser to not be engaging in activities where you even have to worry about that. If your rule is the best rule, my rule is even better. :P
Non sequitur. If you don't do something, negative consequences won't happen. You can say that about anything. Don't have sex if you don't want STDs, don't drive a car if you don't want to get into an accident, don't walk down the street at night if you don't want to get mugged.
This always works because people are foolish and too trusting. The best rule is to assume everyone is LE trying to catch you. That means never revealing info that can lead back to you, never telling anyone personal info, your general location (eg the weather), always using 7 proxies, etc.
People who don't break the law would probably be surprised how much personal info crackers give to their online "friends". Less so on fraud forums but it still happens.
As some other people mentioned read "Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground" for more info on how LE works. The FBI took over a few carding forums and Secret Service also had high level CIs.