Chichasov Vitaly

Biography

2023: Sentence - 8 years in prison for building an online platform that sold American data

On November 28, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced that District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle sentenced Ukrainian citizen Vitaly Chichasov to eight years in prison for creating and managing an online platform that sold data from millions of Americans. Personal information such as names, dates of birth and social security numbers were distributed through the SSNDOB Marketplace.

Chichasov, 37, was arrested in March 2022 while attempting to enter Hungary and later extradited to the United States. According to the case file, SSNDOB Marketplace included several resources located at blackjob.biz, ssndob.club, ssndob.vip and ssndob.ws. On June 7, 2022, these domain names were arrested in accordance with a court order, which led to the actual termination of the SSNDOB Marketplace platform. The court also ordered the confiscation of $5 million in fraud proceeds.

Ukrainian hacker received eight years in prison for creating and managing an online platform that sold data of millions of Americans

The investigation found that Chichasov and other marketplace administrators advertised their services on the darknet's criminal forums. The members of the criminal group also used various methods to hide their identities: servers in different countries and digital payment tools were used to ensure anonymity. About 24 million US citizens whose personal data were stolen suffered from the actions of the attackers.

Sales at SSNDOB Marketplace rose sharply in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the federal and state governments began to allocate money to American families due to the emergency. In general, illegal activities brought income to fraudsters of more than $19 million. In July 2023, Chichasov pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.^[1]

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