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for you twenty-four hours a day and make the best devices for skimming. You’ll be able to make money in this business with me and my group. We make these devices for newbies—it’s that easy to use!” The animated Cha0 goes on to offer practical advice: Don’t install your skimmer in the morning, because passersby are more vigilant at that time. Don’t choose a location where 250 people or more pass a day. Avoid cities with a population less than 15,000—residents know too well what the ATM is supposed to look like and might notice Cha0’s product.

Notwithstanding his whimsical marketing, Cha0 had always made it clear to his friend Master Splyntr that he was a serious criminal, not afraid to get physical to protect his multimillion-dollar business. Now he’d proven it. Mert “Kier” Ortac had been part of Cha0’s organization, the Crime Enforcers, until he went running to a Turkish TV station to blab about Cha0’s activities. After a couple of interviews, he vanished. When he resurfaced a short time later, he told a harrowing story about being abducted and beaten by Cha0 and his henchmen.

Now Cha0 had confirmed the tale by posting the kidnap photo to DarkMarket as a warning to others.

The image put proof to the FBI’s long-held suspicions that the computer underground was getting violent. With hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into the scene every year, it had seemed inevitable that the carders would take on the brutal methods of traditional organized crime to enlarge or protect their illegal income.

With Max safely locked up in an Ohio detention center, DarkMarket had been free to grow, and Mularski was closing in on its heaviest hitters—Cha0 among them. A Turkish cybercrime detective had spent three months at the NCFTA on a fellowship and was working with Mularski to run down the skimmer maker.

Mularski had sent Cha0 two lightweight PCs as a gift the previous year, opening the first door in the investigation. Cha0 had directed the shipment to flunkies in his organization, who were promptly put under surveillance by the Turkish National Police. That led to Cagatay Evyapan,