Due to their alleged role in running WWH Club, a dark web marketplace that specialises in the sale of private and financial information, two men have been charged in the United States.
The charges against Alex Khodyrev, a 35-year-old Kazakh national, and Pavel Kublitskii, a 37-year-old Russian national, include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and access device fraud.
Between 2014 and 2024, Khodyrev and Kublitskii served as the primary administrators of WWH Club (wwh-club[.]ws) and its sister sites, wwh-club[.]net, center-club[.]pw, opencard[.]pw, and skynetzone[.]org. These sites served as forums, dark web marketplaces, and training grounds for cybercrime.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States launched an investigation in July 2020 and found that WWH Club’s primary domain (www-club[.]ws]) resolved to an IP address owned by DigitalOcean. This information allowed the FBI to issue a federal search warrant to the infrastructure company, which led to the indictment.
“WWH Club and sister site members used the marketplaces to buy and sell stolen personal identifying information (PII), credit card and bank account information, and computer passwords, among other sensitive information,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said.
Conversely, the forums served as a focal point for conversations about the most effective ways to perpetrate fraud, initiate cyberattacks, and elude law authorities.
In addition, the darknet marketplace provided online training on fraud techniques for prospective and experienced cybercriminals. The course was marketed for 10,000–60,000 rubles (about $110–664 as of September 7, 2024) with an extra $200 for training materials.
According to court documents, undercover FBI agents registered on the website and paid roughly $1,000 in bitcoin to enrol in a training session that the platform provided. The course covered subjects like credit card skimmers, DDoS and hacking services, selling sensitive information, and brute-force programs.
“The training was conducted through a chat function on the forum to a class of approximately 50 students; the various instructors provided training in text format rather than audible instruction,” the criminal complaint states. “It was apparent the purpose of the training was to educate individuals on how to obtain and use stolen credit card data and PII to generate fraudulent proceeds.”
As of March 2023, WWH Club is anticipated to have 353,000 registered users globally, up from 170,000 in July 2020. It is thought that Khodyrev and Kublitskii benefited from the advertising money, tuition fees, and membership payments.
In a report released a month ago, Flashpoint stated that although law enforcement is making an effort, WWH Club is still operating and that “its other administrators are attempting to distance themselves from Kublitskii and Khodyrev.”
Khodyrev and Kublitskii “had been living in Miami for the past two years, while secretly continuing to administer WWH Club and its sister dark web marketplaces, forums, and schools,” the DoJ claimed.
They could each spend up to 20 years in federal prison if found guilty on all counts. The indictment further calls for the forfeiture of Kublitskii’s 2020 Cadillac CT5 Sport sedan and Khodyrev’s 2023 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG sport utility vehicle, which are purportedly acquired with money obtained from their illicit venture.