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MASTER SPLYNTR

strict hierarchy had given the FBI a roadmap to crack down on the mob decades before.

All he had to do now was join the carders.

He selected a forum from a list provided by Crabb and clicked on the account registration link. Under Justice Department regulations, Mularski could infiltrate the forums without approval from Washington, provided he observed strict limits on his activities. To maintain his cover, he could post messages to the forum bulletin boards, but he couldn't engage anyone directly; he would be permitted no more than three “substantive contacts” with any other forum member. Participating in crimes, or making controlled buys from a vendor, was out of the question. It could be an intelligence-gathering operation only; he would be a sponge, soaking up information about his adversaries.

As soon as he connected, he was confronted with his first important strategic decision: What would his hacker handle be? Mularski went with his gut. Inspired by the Saturday morning cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the agent settled on the moniker of the sewer-dwelling karate champs’ rodent sensei, a biped rat called Master Splinter. For uniqueness, and a hackerish timbre, he spelled his surname without major vowels.

So in July 2005, Master Splyntr signed up for his first crime forum, CarderPortal, laughing to himself over the poetry in assuming the name of an underground rat.

Mularski was soon playing the carder forums like a chessboard, drawing on the NCFTA’s stream of scam data for his opening moves.

The center was plugged directly into the antifraud efforts at banks and e-commerce sites, so when a new criminal innovation showed up, Mularski knew about it. He posted about the schemes on CarderPortal, portraying them as his own inventions. The experienced crooks marveled at the newcomer who'd independently reinvented their newest tricks. And