DARKMARK

Mert knew about cryptography and programming; Sadun knew about credit cards. Before long the two were pooling their skills. And, to Mert's astonishment, Sadun told him that he was a member of Dark- Market, which he visited using two nicknames, Cryptos and PilotM. Within hours Mert Ortaç was logging in as the latter.

O, wonder! thought Mert as he espied the innards of DarkMarket for the first time:

How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!

Mert was transfixed. He explored every nook and cranny of the website, looking into its forums, learning to imitate its argot and then trying to uncover its secrets through slightly more devious means. Until now, Mert's criminal aspirations had been focused on the area of smart-card decryption and selling cloned cards once he had cracked their coding system. Let loose on DarkMarket, he was quickly picking up new tips about credit-card fraud. The combination of these skills would lead him and Sadun into some very murky, if financially nutri- tious, waters.

Before that, however, he started to map everything about DarkMarket as if it were an underground maze with hidden traps and treasures. His bosses at National Intelligence of course wanted to uncover anything that related to DHKP/C, the terrorist organisation they were investigating. But Mert was more interested in everything else that was going on across the boards.

He very quickly understood that Cha0, Master Splyntr, Shtirlitz and Lord Cyric were key members of the site. By the time Mert started playing on DarkMarket, JiLsi and Matrix001 had already been taken down.

It took him only seconds to figure out that Cha0 was Turkish, although this was entirely by accident and had nothing to do with his hacking skills. He was browsing the advertisements for Cha0's skim- ming machines when he spotted a Turkish sign for a doner kebab in the background. On another photo a skimmer for sale was standing next to some Turkish washing powder.

He relayed the news about the heavy Turkish influence on the website