One of the most notable carding shops may be shutting down for good.
The Joker’s Stash shop will be closing operations on Feb. 15, 2021, according to the site’s owner. In a message board post on a popular Russian-language cybercrime forum, the operator said the site is closing “forever” and its team is heading into a “well-deserved retirement.”
“When we opened years ago, nobody knew us. Today we are one of the largest cards/dumps marketplace,” the post reads. “Unfortunately, or fortunately - nothing lasts forever. It’s time for us to leave forever.”
The announcement comes weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice and INTERPOL allegedly seized proxy servers used in connection with the blockchain-based domains belonging to Joker’s Stash. Shortly after the action, the site’s operators took to several underground forums to stress that the shop would go back to normal after access was restored.
Joker’s Stash's fall comes after a very turbulent close to 2020. In October, the actor who allegedly runs the site announced he had contracted COVID-19, spending a week in the hospital. The condition impacted the site’s forums, inventory replenishments and other operations. Intel 471 also observed the site’s clients complaining that the shop’s payment card data quality was increasingly poor.
In the post, the operator said he plans to keep the site open for 30 days so users can spend their account balance. Any partners would be paid out before the site shuts down.
The post also stresses that the site’s servers and backups will be wiped after February 15.
"We are also want to wish all young and mature ones cyber-gangsters not to lose themselves in the pursuit of easy money,” the post reads. “Remember, that even all the money in the world will never make you happy and that all the most truly valuable things in this life are free.”