C. Aliens 
Joker’s Stash, by some accounts the largest underground shop for selling stolen credit card and identity data, says it’s closing up shop effective mid-February 2021. The announcement came on the heels of a turbulent year for the major cybercrime store, and just weeks after U.S. and European authorities seized a number of its servers.
Started in 2014, Joker’s Stash quickly became the premiere online marketplace for criminals trading in stolen credit cards. The Russian and English language carding store was a major source of “dumps” — information stolen from compromised payment cards that thieves can buy and use to create physical counterfeit copies of the cards. Now, after an extremely profitable six years, its founder has announced that the site is shutting down forever.
But 2020 turned out to be a tough year for Joker’s Stash. First the store admin announced in October that he’d contracted COVID-19, spending a week in the hospital then after that in December several of Joker’s long-held domains began displaying notices that the sites had been seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and Interpol. Although the shop quickly recovered, moving to new infrastructure and assuring the underground community that it would continue to operate normally.
Another event that may have contributed to the shop’s closure is the recent spike in the value of Bitcoin. A year ago, one bitcoin was worth about $9,000. Today a single bitcoin is valued at more than $35,000. So i guess he may have become a billionaire and achieved his goal to become one of the wealthiest cybercriminals, the spike in his earnings may have contributed in his decision to retire.
In an announcement on an underground carding forum the administrator of joker’s stash explained the reason of his departure and gave advice to his fellow carders. He said.
Joker goes on a well-deserved retirement. Joker’s Stash is closing. When we opened years ago, nobody knew us. Today we are one of the largest cards/dumps marketplace. Unfortunately, or fortunately – nothing lasts forever. Its time for us to leave forever. We will leave the Stash opened for 30 more days, until 2021-02-15, so all Stash users can spend accounts balances. On 2021-02-15 we will wipe all our servers and backups and Joker will fade to dark, forever. And mark my word: WE WILL NEVER EVER OPEN AGAIN! Do NOT trust possible future imposters! After 2021-02-15 there will be no more Joker and no more Joker’s Stash. Dear partners of Stash – you can be sure, that before we leave forever, you will get all payouts, contact me you know how.
We are also want to wish all young and mature ones cyber-gangsters not to lose themselves in the pursuit of easy money. 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.
It should be noted that the site’s disappearance will do little to slow the flow of stolen credit card data. Those looking to sell will simply move to other underground marketplaces and buyers will quickly follow.
