"One guy had completed 25 deals, with a 100 percent positive feedback rating; they have adopted rankings unabashedly," he said. "They now have specialized equipment to create bank-quality cards, offer phishing services, and even re-shipping. You can choose from reviewed vendors and compare pricing, everything you want is available and you can buy credit card "dumps" and track data."

Jacobson said a December 2005 bust of one eastern block trader led to problems with prosecution, because the perpetrator "had a remote control destruction device more like an NSA spy plane, but on a home PC" that destroyed all evidence on his hard disk. Two members of the Ukrainian parliament had personally vouched for him.