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One Plat and Six Classics

Keith Mularski hadn’t known what he was in for when he took over DarkMarket.

His days were crazy now. He’d start at eight in the morning, logging in to his undercover computer at the office and checking for overnight ICQ messages—any urgent business for Master Splyntr. Then he’d hit DarkMarket and make sure it was up and running. It was always hit-or-miss with Iceman on the loose.

Next came the drudgery of backing up the SQL database. Iceman had somehow dropped the tables twice since his failed attempt to expose Mularski, so now the backups were a part of Mularski’s morning routine. They served an investigative function as well: While the database was being copied, a simple script authored by an NCFTA coder scanned every line for sixteen-digit numbers beginning with the numerals 3 through 6. The stolen credit card numbers would be automatically sorted by BIN and sent to the proper banks for immediate cancellation.

Next, Mularski had to review all the private messages, pick out the interesting chats, and check them into the FBI’s central ELSUR electronic surveillance database. An hour or two of report writing followed. As Master Splyntr, Mularski had begun his own modest cash-out operation. Some banks had agreed to issue him disposable dumps as bait, with fake