Threat Management

Police arrest “Mattfeuter” site operators, break up $200M carder racket

International authorities have broken up a ring of scammers who sold consumers personal and financial information through a “dump” site, resulting in $200 million in fraudulent charges.

The group was disbanded when its alleged leaders, Van Tien Tu and Duy Hai Truong, were arrested last week in Vietnam. At least 10 others, including some who are unnamed, were apprehended by police in Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

Truong, 23, was charged in the United States with conspiracy to commit bank fraud in New Jersey for his role in the racket, in which fraudsters charged credit cards issued here and in Europe from 2007 until their arrest. Victims also include consumers in Vietnam.

Federal prosecutors in Newark said the group set up websites at various domains, all using the name “mattfeuter,” where fraudsters swapped stolen information, such as names, addresses, credit card information and Social Security numbers. The "dumps" were sold for anywhere between $1 and $300.

Numbers from more than one million credit cards were sold on the sites and, according to prosecutors, the crime ring targeted victims who entered their personal and financial information on retail sites. Law enforcement estimate that 16,000 members bought and sold credit card data off the sites.

If convicted, Truong faces up to 30 years in prison.

According to reports, three unnamed men in the U.K. also have been charged with their involvement in the scheme, as well as eight individuals in the Vietnam, including Van Tien Tu. Their charges range from illegally posting and using stolen data online to using credit card data for online gambling.

Tien Tu was charged with creating the Mattfeuter websites.

Law enforcement in several countries, including Germany, Italy and others, collaborated to make the bust.

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