15

CARDERSMARKET

Iceman watched from the sidelines as the US Secret Service outsmarted the brains behind Shadowcrew. He considered himself apart from most of this tawdry team, which had sought to mug unsuspecting individuals on the Net while allowing itself to be eaten from inside by informers, snitches and rippers.

Now that Shadowcrew was finished and a number of wannabes had sprung up to replace it, Iceman resolved to show the world how you beat the law. Above all, he wanted to show his mastery of cyberspace and its users.

For Iceman, the carding sites were anarchic emporia where money was barely relevant and freedom to act was everything. He believed sincerely that creating special market places like his own new site, CardersMarket, where people could exchange information, should not be regarded as a criminal act in itself, even if it might inspire some of the traders to commit crimes. His and similar sites were a signal that the Web, in contrast to other areas of life, should not feel constrained by heavy-handed state interference, and on the home page he addressed the police and administrators of the Internet quite directly:

MSG TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, HOSTING, & ISPS:

CardersMarket is a legal forum provided as a place where members are allowed to discuss topics of their choosing. Abso- lutely no illegal content is permitted and any illegal content is removed immediately by staff. Discussion is not a crime. Oper- ating a forum is not a crime. There are no credit-card numbers,