Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 26, 2025

Largest darknet stolen credit card site closes

Largest darknet stolen credit card site closes

The administrators of the largest illegal marketplace on the darknet for stolen credit cards are retiring after making an estimated $358m (£260m).

The anonymous owners of UniCC thanked the criminal fraternity for their business, citing age and health for the closure.

Many other illegal darknet marketplaces have also shut down voluntarily over the winter for unknown reasons.

Police say the trend leaves them with mixed feelings.

The darknet is a part of the internet only accessible through special browsing software.

'We are not young'


Cryptocurrency experts at analysts Elliptic traced hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-payments made to UniCC.

UniCC posted on darknet forums in both Russian and English saying "our team retires". The anonymous criminals added: "We are not young and our health do not allow to work like this any longer".

UniCC has been active since 2013 with tens of thousands of new stolen credit cards listed for sale on the market each day.

Hundreds of millions of payment card details have been stolen from online retailers, banks and payment companies before being sold on online marketplaces such as UniCC.

These stolen cards have value because they can be used to purchase high-value items or gift cards, which can then be resold for cash.

Elliptic researchers say the website has received cryptocurrency payments since it opened totalling $358m across Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether and Dash.

The closure of UniCC comes just under a year after the retirement of the previous market leader, Joker's Stash.

It's also the latest in a growing list of criminal marketplaces to have voluntarily retired in the last six months.

In October 2021, White House Market - the largest darknet market of its kind - announced that it would shut down. This was followed by Cannazon in November and Torrez over Christmas.

When Torrez closed in December it was one of the largest English-language marketplaces in the world selling drugs, hacking tools, counterfeit cash and criminal services.

A letter posted on its homepage said it had been "a great pleasure to work with most vendors and users".

Historically when darknet sites close down, the operators disappear with customers' or vendors' money - this is known as an exit scam. They may also be hacked, or busted by police and taken offline.


This new trend for marketplaces winding down in an orderly fashion is known as "sunsetting" or "voluntary retirement".

"Right now it seems to be happening more. Markets gracefully exit and say, 'We've made enough money, and before we get caught, we're just going to retire and go into the sunset," says Prof David Décary-Hétu, a criminologist at the University of Montreal.

He says that administrators running large marketplaces like Torrez can make upwards of $100,000 a day in commission fees.

For police, who would prefer criminals to face justice, this kind of exit causes mixed feelings.

"I always celebrate anybody who perhaps realises that they're in an occupation, which is criminalised and decided not to enhance that further," says Alex Hudson, the National Crime Agency's head of darknet intelligence.

"If there is a regret, it's that we do need to hold them accountable for it and they need to understand that they will still be held accountable."

The closures are unlikely to spell the end of darknet markets as new ones will no doubt emerge.

New BBC research for Radio 4's File on Four found that at least 450 darknet vendors operating today have outlived previous police closures over the last decade.


Watch: The BBC's Joe Tidy investigates the darknet drug dealers who keep coming back

Watch: What is the dark web?


Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
×