as the clock was ticking inside the Miami National Hotel, Albert Gonzalez prepared for his final escape. Laid out was his fake passport, a gun, and a six-foot-tall stone escort to keep him company. But it wasn't the Russians chasing after him this time, it was the

feds. They were determined to catch him as one of the biggest cyber criminals of the 21st century. See, Albert had been the feds' most valuable informant for the past seven years, ingratiating the Secret Service into the world of credit card fraud and helping them search for the

hacker who had stolen 184 million credit cards. But that hacker they were looking for? That was Albert Gonzalez this entire time. See, as an informant, Albert led the feds on a goose chase that went absolutely nowhere. He helped bust fraud rings that were in reality his own

competitors, and he used this informant status at the Secret Service to operate one of the biggest credit card fraud rings in history right underneath their nose. But with Albert's recent hacks being covered in the news as one of the largest in history, Albert knew it was a

matter of time before they caught on to him. This is the story of Albert Gonzalez, the FBI's most wanted hacker. Now, raised in Miami with Cuban immigrant parents, Albert grew up with the American dream. But as a kid working for his dad's gardening business, Albert soon knew that

blue-collar work wasn't for him. You see, like any other kid, he'd rather be on the computer. Now, through IRC chat rooms online, Albert began ingratiating himself into the world of hacking, finding friends who were more interested in downloading service manuals for routers

just for fun, like a sponge, Albert absorbed the chat rooms, learning how to hack the crevices of the internet that were off limits to others. And at 14, the kid knew we had a talent, but spending every night online, Albert's

grades slowly began to fall, and that's when the trouble began to start. Now, joining the hacking crew called the Kebler Elves, Albert was now known as Soup Nazi and began pulling pranks like any other kid would, you know, like facing international government

websites, just to gain worldwide attention, like hacking into the government of India and changing their website to say, "What's with the Red Dot? Why are your women so ugly?" But while the pranks were fun and games back on the chat rooms, hackers were starting to make some serious cash

and Albert, as a poor kid, wanted in. Now, with the rise of online shopping in the late '90s, security was often an afterthought, and for hackers, that was a gold mine. Now called carding, it's a fraud that exists even today, and Albert

learned the art of it, learning how to hack into websites to steal credit cards. Just with the breeze, Albert purchased Jordans, video games, brand new computers. Everything was on him, and to ensure he wasn't caught, he had all the goods shipped to a home for sale near

his school so he could just pick it up during recess. And for a 14-year-old kid, that's like winning the jackpot. And on the hacking chat room, Soup Nazi was becoming a legend, but when Albert's dad found the receipt for a $10,000 computer in his

bedroom, his dad staged an intervention, and Albert promised to cut it out, but it was already too late. Answering the door to the FBI, they informed him that his son was in big trouble. "Why?" "Oh, you know, last month Albert, um, hacked into NASA." But as long as Albert could explain how

we hacked into NASA, they wouldn't press charges. So disappointed that Albert, his kid who was so smart, could get into so much trouble, drove him down to the FBI so he could show them how a 14-year-old kid broke into their government agency security. But this wouldn't be the last

time Albert ever worked with the feds. Now, 5 years later, right out of high school, Albert graduates with a clean record and moves up to Manhattan during the .com boom. They try to make money the legal way now, startups flush with cash. Albert was beginning to make six figures

right out of high school, and his parents were proud. I mean, the kid had seriously turned his life around. Like musical chairs, Albert went to the next company that could pay him even more. He began partying at the hippest bars in the city, railing lines all around town. Albert was

large and in charge. This closing bell might as well have been an alarm, so savage was the silly. But in 2002, when the music stopped, Albert was laid off, and the .com boom was done. And even worse, Albert had nothing saved. He had blown all of his money on

drugs and partying. So broke, desperate, and refusing to disappoint his parents by moving back home, Albert crawled back into the only way he knew to make easy money: the hacking forums. Now, after a 3-year hiatus, hackers were so stoked to see Soup Nazi back online, because in the

World of cyber hackers were making serious bank, and Albert came back at the perfect time. Now called Shadow Crew.com, it was a new invite-only forum for vetted carders and hackers, like the mob. He had to know somebody to get in, and Albert, he was in now on Shadow Crew.

Russian hackers sold databases of stolen credit cards by the thousands. Craftsmen from Ukraine sold fake passports that could pass an immigration check, and Chinese vendors sold credit card cloning equipment for the newest fraud. Mind you, this is like 10 years before the dark web, so this was insane at the time now.

Unlike the old hacking IRC chats that were strictly anonymous, reputation mattered here. Vendors had reviews, feds were ratted out, and users had been vetted. And for the who's who in the hacking world, Shadow Crew.com was the place to be at, and Albert was in heaven.

But oh boy, the kid had so much to learn. You see, the carding that Albert knew, using stolen credit cards to buy something online, have it sent to a drop point, and then sell it on eBay, that was all old news.  Eco carding, okay, because hackers had figured out how

to clone stolen credit cards, so they could take the clone card to the ATM and withdraw thousands in cash within seconds. And the way it worked was truly genius. Now a credit card is broken into the two data tracks. Track one is for the information you can see on the credit

card, that's like the number and the expiration date. That's the carding that Albert knew. But to clone a card, you need the data you can't see, which is track two. And recently, hackers had figured out how to clone track two data. And with a

Clone card, you could take that to an ATM and withdraw cash on a stolen debit card or do a cash advance on a credit card within seconds. And this meant hackers were making thousands of dollars a day in cash, and with all the guides and equipment sold to do this on Shadow Crew.

Albert got a cloner, blank cards, and a database of stolen numbers to get right to work. Within months, Albert was making thousands of dollars cloning cards all across Manhattan. Soup Nazi fed by his endless lines of blow, shares all of his carding tips online. He writes startup

guides for newbies and he gains credibility and moves up to the most respected position on Shadow Crew: moderator. But moderator wasn't all that Soup Nazi cracked it up to be. Now chowing down on donuts at midnight, NYPD watches an attractive

woman working in an ATM for over an hour and a half, inserting card after card, fistfuls of cash being shoved into her purse. Suspicious, you know. They bring her downtown and, sadly, it's not even a woman, it's actually a man in a

wig and dress with a half-grown beard, 30 credit cards, 15K in cash, and one ID for Albert Gonzalez. But with Albert refusing to talk, they get warrants at hand, search his apartment, and oh boy, they find a treasure trove. They find hard drives

filled with thousands of stolen credit card numbers, dozens of computers, card cloners, yay up the yin-yang. But with Albert refusing to confess about anything he had done, and it clearly looking like some kind of fraud, they call an agent Ward from the Secret

Service to find out now why the Secret Service, he might ask, well, not only did they protect the president, but they also protect the money system in the United States. So a fraud like this is right up their alley, but Agent Ward hadn't seen a fraud like this ever. The Clone credit card...

The hard drives full of stolen numbers, men, and dresses, none of it made sense. So Agent Ward presents Albert with two ways this whole thing can go. If he wants to stay silent, that would cost him 20 years in prison just for the drugs at his apartment, but if Albert talked about...

what he was doing, perhaps a better arrangement could be made. For 7 hours, Albert spills his guts about the world of carding. He talks about an elite forum that brought together the best hackers in the world, Shadow Crew.com. There, you could purchase credit cards that were...

taken from skimmers at gas stations or hackers who had stolen them. Carters in the form, clone stolen cards to cash out of ATMs and to keep all of the feds out, you had to be vetted to get in, and uh, Albert, oh yeah, the guy was a moderator.

So with the top user in their custody and how hard it was to get even into the site, Ward tells Albert if he wants to turn informant and bring down Shadow Crew, he'll drop the charges. Albert was either way, so he takes the deal, but what he...

didn't realize was that it was not a guarantee. So-called Operation Firewall, they were going to take down Shadowcrew.com, and Albert was their inside man. Leasing a warehouse had a New Jersey, so the IP address could not be tracked back to the feds. Albert began inviting...

dozens of Undercovers into the site who we had help make non-fed like usernames like Iceman and Coca-Cola and hooked up to a TV. Albert's computer taught agents all about the Lego and the basic frauds on the site, and within weeks agents were

doing their own undercover buys of stolen credit cards, fake driver's licenses, and they were amazed at the quality these vendors were providing. Now, while informants are generally held at a distance, the agents began to really like Albert, calling him by his online handle Soup Nazi. They began playing basketball

on breaks, had inside jokes, and even helped him sober up and clean up his act. And Albert finds a real thrill in playing for both sides of the team, but after months of a smooth infiltration and controlled bias operation, Firewall had one huge problem: they couldn't indict anyone. You see,

Shadow crew members really cared about their privacy, and that meant they used proxies and VPNs to hide their location. So, to find out where they were at, the feds used that care of privacy against them in the most geniusly simple way. And it posted the site. Albert writes, "I've

created a custom VPN that's 30 bucks a month to hide everyone's IP addresses. If you're doing anything sketch on the you got to use it. Everyone stoked. Hackers are signing up. More frauds are getting done now, thinking that everything was even more private now, but oh boy, this

VPN was used for all the wrong reasons because it was actually a Secret Service wiretap. They had access to everything, and Albert was finally going to get off the hook, but at the cost of everyone else. Over, but what if you wanted your own VPN that didn't log your activity or

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to get four extra months of Surfshark for free. Surfshark.com/VinceVintage. So coordinating the raids of 28 Shadow Crew members in eight different countries, headlines broke around the world of the largest credit card fraud ring in the world finally shut down. Those busted were looking at decades in prison.

Companies in the public were just shocked at the systematic scale of credit card fraud, but fearing retaliation from all the shadow crew members who would eventually find out that Albert was the informant, he's taken back home to Miami by the Secret Service for a fresh start with his family and

Agent Ward felt that he had really reformed and that he would not turn to crime again, but the question everyone wanted to know was, was it enough for the Secret Service to drop the charges? Now, a year later, back at square one, Albert felt just trapped in Miami

because no one wanted to hire him because even a year later they still had not dropped the charges. Depressed at the thought of prison, unable to work anywhere, all of that would change when Agent Ward showed up at his doorstep once again. Now, while the Shadow Crew's

takedown had been a great success, like a game of whack-a-mole, clones were popping up all over the web, and this whole carding fraud had gotten even worse. And Ward had the opportunity of a lifetime for Albert. He could become a

paid informant for the Secret Service. He'd make 70 grand a year, he'd get an office. It sounds great, and uh oh, yeah, don't worry, we're still working to drop the charges. But Albert just wanted to move on and get a real job. But in the

end, he didn't really have a choice. So, in golden handcuffs, Albert turns informant once again. Now, the world of carding was moving fast. Skimming techniques got even more refined. Hackers developed exploit steal databases never seen before. And gone were the days of small-time hackers

trying to make a few bucks. Casters had managers, hackers had liaisons, and carding empires began to resemble corporate structures with the revenue to match. Albert grew so jealous of them, now while setting up sting operations on hacking forums, while it sounds exciting

to us, became really a grind for Albert. I mean, he began to vicariously live through all these hackers that he was setting up, knowing that if he was involved in the game again, oh, he would use his insight or knowledge to make himself millions of dollars. So after

months in a dead-end job with the threat of prison just held over his head, Albert came to the conclusion, well, if he was going to be considered a criminal by not having these charges dropped, why not just be a criminal now? In the 2000s, companies were

installing Wi-Fi at breakneck speeds. Sensitive corporate data didn't go through wires anymore, hell no, it floated through the air with Wi-Fi networks out in the open public, often without a password. Albert knew this was his time to strike because the new meta of

carding was war driving. War driving is a computer term for driving around with a laptop, tapping into unsecured wireless networks. Hackers would drive around with an 8-foot tall antenna to search for vulnerable corporate Wi-Fi networks to hack into.

And well, today it seems obvious that uh, maybe have a password on your network. Back then, no one truly cared. Within minutes of war driving, you could have access to the entire network at the company, stealing every little thing being done on the network. Millions of dollars were on the table with war

driving, and for Albert, this was it. But as an informant, it could not be Albert driving cuz going to prison as an informant, yeah, that's how you die. But the risk was worth a reward, although Albert couldn't do it alone, so he goes

to the best hackers he knows in the game for the plan of a lifetime: Steven Watt, AKA Unix Terrorist, a top programmer at Goldman Sachs. He was a 7-foot-tall amateur bodybuilder, a self-described world's fastest typer on sub-anesthetic doses of

Special K. Jonathan James, at 16 years old, Jonathan hacked into the International Space Station. He served a six-month sentence and became the youngest hacker ever put behind bars, which would traumatize him permanently. But at the end of this video, his story actually ends up being kind of tragic. Christopher

Scott, known as UT Untouchable, an expert hacker who loved loose women and diamond chains. He flunked out of high school after riding a virus that destroyed his entire school's network. Then we have Patrick Toey, and honestly, there's nothing really cool about the guy. He was just

Albert's yes-man and did all of his dirty work. And Albert called it Operation Get Rich or Die Try. They were going to try to pull off what would become the biggest hack in history. During the day, Albert would work in finance. During the night, he would help them hack into the

infrastructure of all these networks. What could go wrong? And now we're driving the freeways of Miami. UT and Jonathan James, with their makeshift Wi-Fi rig, searched for one thing: unsecured corporate Wi-Fi networks. And after days of searching, they finally discovered

that TJ Maxx, you know where it's never the same selection twice, had just gotten Wi-Fi and better yet, it was unsecured. Now from the comfort of the car, they hacked inside TJ Maxx and within minutes began stealing every credit card used in

that store in real time. Now the plan would go like this: Jonathan and UT would steal that track 2 data. Albert would create a clone of the card and he would send it off to Patrick to go use it at ATMs all across the country doing what Albert

did, an address basically years ago, and bam, they were making a ton of money. But through the months this little plan started to show some cracks: one, it took a lot of time. They would have to sit there outside the store and steal one card at a time the entire day. And two,

not every card was worth cloning, meaning some were maxed out, some at thousands in cash, and at TJ Maxx, a discount store, not every customer was loaded. But Albert wants more, he wants the entire database, so he hacks into TJ Maxx corporate, all because one store had a Wi-Fi password

and after days of searching through and through, he finds the motherload: the database of 40 million credit cards used at TJ Maxx all across the United States, worth millions on the black market. Albert could retire on an island just selling that database alone. Although, one problem: it was all

encrypted. Albert's goal was to make enough money, but his old method just wasn't enough because however many people came into that TJ Maxx store was however many cards he could steal. Albert needed to expand, but hiring more hackers would risk the enterprise, so Albert

takes the crew out in the town to brainstorm a better way now at Miami's biggest Ray filled with candy bracelets and XD tablets renting a suite above the Rave Albert had taken his crew out for a little retreat trays of K, trays of C, tabs of E.

They started feeling their hair and expressing their deep love for one another and brainstorming how to hack TJ Maxx, chowing down his jaws with dilated pupils. Albert turns to the room to explain an epiphany he just had, and it wasn't the kind that you regret the next

day when you're coming down, mind you. This actually happened now. With access into TJ Maxx's corporate network, theoretically, they had access to all of the stores now. Albert had discovered that when a credit card is swiped, it's unencrypted. That's how they could steal

it, but when the credit card number was stored on the servers, that's when it was encrypted, and that was the database they had found. So what if instead of someone physically sniffing the network outside the store, they could write some kind of program to virtually sniff the network

at every TJ Maxx in the country, stealing credit cards not at one store but thousands in real time. The plan was genius, but the only dude who could write this program, Steven, was in the midst of a K-hole. But with his body fried, his

brain was intact, and he tells Albert to grab a computer and type out what he says line by line. Steven is programming NC perfectly through his words. The syntax is on point. The understanding of lower-level abstraction is flawless, and to everyone's surprise, it compiles.

perfectly Steven Watt was up on horse tranquilizer and wrote a tool that they would use to take down 200 of the largest companies in the United States and its name was blah blah. Now getting home from The Hangover that month Steven refined BlahBlah even

further. He made it erase its tracks to keep it even more stealthy. He tested it against 20 different antivirus softwares to make it undetectable and he set up lotan servers to have it connect to. Now the way it worked it was almost like so

simple, it was genius. Now using a secret VPN they installed at TJ Maxx corporate, they could go inside the network without raising alarms. Blbl would get installed at every TJ Maxx store and it would sniff that own network stealing the unencrypted debit

cards and credit cards in real time. Essentially what they were doing with the Wi-Fi antenna outside the store, they were now doing virtually. But instead of BlahBlah sending a big packet of stolen credit cards every second which would raise alarms, blablah would bundle them

up once a day and drip feed it through a little VPN connection to the lotan servers, you know, to keep the numbers offshore and away from prying eyes. And oh boy, did this work flawlessly because Albert could steal and clone a card before it could even be reported stolen.

Gone were the days of hanging outside of TJ Maxx like a loser. Soon they installed blah blah at Office Maxs, DSW retailers all across the country and within a year they had 45.6 million stolen credit cards on that Lan server. But to clone them all, Albert

needed help and he went to the only guy that he knew how. Now, with Eastern Europe dominating the carding game, the biggest player in the game was Maxim Yriy, a Ukrainian hacker. He ran a network of thousands of cashers and cloners all

around the world. In China, he had teams making perfectly cloned cards and then with this network of thousands of cashers, they would use these clones all at ATMs, drain the accounts out, and then send back Maxim 80% of the money. But if the casher didn't send that cash back,

well, they would get their asses blacklisted from the game, essentially dooming what Albert was doing, but on an international corporate scale. But recently, Maxim had been running into problems with the stolen cards he bought. After cloning the cards in China, shipping it out to Nigeria, only to find

out the card was canceled. It was causing Maxim a hell of a lot in cash. If Maxim could clone a card right after it was stolen, he'd be killing it. Now, getting friendly on the Russian carding forms, Albert and Maxim find out that they both had what the other one wanted.

Maxim had the network, Albert had the numbers, but Albert knew how dangerous carding was. So, by having thousands of trained cashers potentially do this dirty work all around the world, it was perfect. And for Maxim, he could have millions of stolen credit cards

guaranteed the work. So, over a virtual handshake, they partner up, and within months, the two are making an absolute killing. Albert was getting a quarter of a million in cash shipped to his condo monthly. Maxim was traveling all around the world in five-star hotels. First

Class flights running his network of thousands of cashers like a seasoned CEO, what could go wrong? Largest data breach in US history is getting even larger tonight. Now in 2007, the FBI discovered that TJ Maxx had just been the source of the single biggest credit card data

breach in history. Over the course of a year, millions of cards were stolen. Turns out the biggest security breach in history was as easy as a hacker sitting outside of Marshalls near St. Paul, Minnesota, and pointing a telescope-shaped antenna toward the store to capture the wireless transactions going

on inside. Although the feds had no idea who was behind it, but luckily for Albert, he had stopped hacking TJ Maxx months ago. See, he noticed the cybersecurity firm General Dynamics trying to hack Albert from inside TJ Maxx, and that's when he knew it was time to leave, and he

said, quote, "After those said General Dynamics almost owned me with the zero day while I was owning TJ Maxx, I don't want to risk anything losing $42 million in shareholder value." TJ Maxx couldn't even state how much or even what was even stolen, since blah

blah deleted its traces. All that they knew is it was millions of credit cards stolen, and all Albert knew he had gotten away with it. But Albert was still an informant for the Secret Service. He was leading the feds on a goose chase that went absolutely nowhere. He was setting

up sting operations for rival Carters who competed with this business. Albert had created a black market man Monopoly for himself, and oh boy, was it damn profitable. But with the stress of this TJ Max hack going public, Albert began showing up late, half awake on the job.

and gets fired from the Secret Service for a lack of performance because even now years later Agent Ward really felt that his old friend had lost his heart. It wasn't in it anymore, but as a token of gratitude, he finally got Albert's charges dropped. Albert could leave the

carding game. He could get a real job, he can move on and clean up his act, but Albert was at the top of his game making half a million dollars a week. It was intoxicating, because whether he agreed or not, it was too early to leave yet. So Albert

goes even harder now. Back at home Maxine was demanding more cards, but with TJ Maxx being a no-go, Albert called in another brainstorm to figure out the next move. So after a brainstorm session filled with the lines, powders, and blow, he thought, what

does every store have a credit card terminal? So why not hack the company that makes those? He could access the credit cards of thousands of stores at the risk of only hacking one. It was it was genius. Now the team got together and they stole the engineering documents for

The "Autist" that Became the FBI’s Most Wanted Hacker

Vince Vintage

Albert Gonzalez's Capture and Past as an Informant

Albert Gonzalez prepared for his escape from the Miami National Hotel, pursued by the FBI for his role in major cybercrimes.

He had been a valuable informant for seven years, helping the Secret Service investigate credit card fraud.

However, he was secretly the hacker responsible for stealing 184 million credit cards, leading the feds on a deliberate false trail.

His recent hacks were widely publicized, making his capture imminent.

Gonzalez's Early Life and Introduction to Hacking

Raised in Miami, he disliked blue-collar work and preferred computers.

He learned hacking through online IRC chat rooms, initially engaging in harmless pranks.

As a member of the 'Kebler Elves' hacking group, he targeted international government websites.

He transitioned to credit card fraud, exploiting the weak security of early online shopping.

His father discovered his illegal activities after finding a receipt for an expensive computer.

After a period of working legally, he lost his job during the dot-com bust and returned to hacking.

He joined Shadow Crew.com, an elite online forum for hackers and carders.

He learned advanced carding techniques, including cloning credit cards.

He became a moderator on Shadow Crew.com.

He was arrested after being caught using cloned credit cards at an ATM.

He agreed to become an informant for the Secret Service to avoid a lengthy prison sentence.

Operation Firewall was launched to take down Shadow Crew.com, with Gonzalez as an inside man.

The FBI used a custom VPN created by Gonzalez to monitor Shadow Crew members' activities.

Aftermath of Operation Firewall and Continued Informant Work

The takedown of Shadow Crew resulted in arrests and significant media coverage.

Gonzalez faced challenges finding employment due to pending charges.

He was reinstated as an informant due to the continued rise of credit card fraud.

The carding scene evolved, with more sophisticated techniques and larger-scale operations.

The TJ Maxx Hack and Operation Get Rich or Die Try

Gonzalez and his team exploited unsecured Wi-Fi networks using war driving.

The team consisted of several skilled hackers, each with their own background and expertise.

They initially targeted individual TJ Maxx stores, stealing credit card data.

They later accessed TJ Maxx's corporate network and obtained a database of 40 million credit cards.

Development and Deployment of BlahBlah Malware

They developed BlahBlah malware to steal unencrypted credit card data from numerous stores simultaneously.

BlahBlah was designed to be stealthy and undetectable by antivirus software.

It was deployed on thousands of credit card terminals through a compromised company.

They partnered with Maxim Yriy, a Ukrainian hacker, to process the stolen credit cards.

The TJ Maxx hack became the largest credit card data breach in history.

Gonzalez's actions as an informant were compromised by his own criminal activities.

He targeted the Microsystems point of sale system to gain access to credit card data from numerous stores.

Maxim Yriy's arrest led investigators to Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was apprehended at the National Hotel in Miami.

He received a 20-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay restitution.

The "Autist" that Became the FBI’s Most Wanted Hacker

The "Autist" that Became the FBI’s Most Wanted Hacker

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