The US Department of Justice confirmed the issue and charged Denis Gennadievich Kulkov, a citizen of Russia, for being involved in operating a fraudulent credit card checking business that brought in tens of millions of dollars.
The underground service Try2Check, which Kulkov is believed to have founded in 2005, quickly gained enormous popularity among online criminals engaged in the illicit credit card trade and enabled the suspect to earn at least $18 million in bitcoin.
Apparently, Try2Check leveraged the unnamed company’s “preauthorization” service, whereby a business, such as a hotel, requests that the payment processing firm preauthorizes a charge on a customer’s card to confirm that it is valid and has the necessary credit available. Try2Check impersonated a merchant seeking preauthorization in order to extract information about credit card validity.
What Services Did Try2Check Include?
The services were used by individuals dealing with both the bulk purchase and sale of credit card credentials and were required to check the percentage of valid and active credit cards, including dark web markets like Joker's Stash for card testing.
By using Try2Check services, the defendant duped a well-known U.S. payment processing company whose systems were used to execute the card checks, in addition to credit card holders and issuers.
The services have now been dismantled following a collaborative measure taken by the US Government and partners in Germany and Austria, including units in the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (B.A.), the German Federal Office for Information Security (B.S.), and the French Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ).
"Try2Check ran tens of millions of credit card checks per year and supported the operations of major card shops that made hundreds of millions in bitcoin in profits[…]Over a nine-month period in 2018, the site performed at least 16 million checks, and over a 13-month period beginning in September 2021, the site performed at least 17 million checks," the DOJ stated.
In addition to this, the US State Department in partnership with the US Secret Service has offered a $10 million reward through the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) for anyone who can help find Kulkov, who is currently a resident of Russia. If found guilty, Kulkov will face a 20-year-imprisonment.
"The individual named in today's indictment is accused of operating a criminal service with immeasurable reach to fund further illicit activity with global impact[…]Thanks to the cooperation and dedication of our global law enforcement community, Try2Check can no longer serve as a vehicle for continued criminal activity or illicit profits," said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Freaney.