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KINGPIN

Mularski listened as Schuler described his investigation to date. He'd focused on the fake news website, Financialedgedenews.com, used to deliver the malware. The domain was registered to a false identity in Georgia. But when the registrar, Go Daddy, checked its records, it found the same user had once registered another address through the company. Cardersmarket.com.

Mularski recognized the significance at once. Iceman positioned himself as the innocent operator of a website that happened to discuss illegal activity. Now Schuler had evidence that he was also a profit-oriented hacker, one who'd broken into the network of the fifth-largest credit card issuer in America. "Dude, you got the case!" Mularski laughed. "You got the case right now on the guy we were just trying to target on our Group II. We've got to work together on this."

Across town, Secret Service agents at the Pittsburgh field office had made a discovery of their own about Iceman: An informant tipped them off that Carders Market's kingpin had a second identity as the dumps vendor Digits. Four days after the USA Today article, the agents exploited that knowledge by having a second snitch make a controlled buy from Digits: twenty-three dumps for $480 in e-gold.

It was more than they needed for a felony charge.