A 28-year-old Rotterdam man was arrested Monday on suspicion of possessing and selling hacked PayPal accounts. The case came to light after police dismantled and took offline one of the largest illegal marketplaces on the Internet, Hansa Market, in June 2017.
Following the dismantling of Hansa Market by the national Team High Tech Crime, police gained insight into large numbers of sellers and buyers who appeared not only to deal in hard drugs online, but also to offer other items on the Darkweb. For example, the nationwide team tracked down a seller of hacked PayPal accounts. He was not only active on Hansa Market, but also appeared to be offering the accounts on other markets, such as Dream Market. For a small fee, it was possible to buy data from a hacked account from him.
Arrest
The file was transferred to the Rotterdam Cybercrime team after examining all digital data. They closed the net around the suspect and detained the 28-year-old Rotterdam man on Monday, May 7, at a residence on Adrianastraat. He is in custody and is suspected, among other things, of selling and having at his disposal data that could be used to commit computer hacking.
Methodology
A hacked PayPal account makes it possible, at the original PayPal owner's expense, to purchase goods or book travel, for example. And all at the original owner's expense because his or her bank account is linked to it. In this way, someone can go down the drain for thousands of dollars.
