Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
How This Dark Web Cyber Scammer Mades Millions | John Boseak's Story
10 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
There was nobody doing what I was doing. I was making $100,000 a month. The quality of the product that I was putting out was indistinguishable from something that was issued from a financial institution. I can do this from anywhere. It doesn't matter where I'm at, I can do this because all I need is an internet connection. They beat on the door again. Police, open the door.
This is a fork in the road kind of moment. Like, do I stay here and stick it out or do I leave? So I left, you know, that's what I do. I run from everything I've been running my whole life. Just been like this on recurring theme. That's what I do. For those of you who don't know me and are just seeing me for the first time today, my name is John Boziak and
Roughly from 2005 to 2009, I manufactured and distributed $3.5 million in fraudulent credit cards and driver's licenses via the internet. And I made a boatload of money doing it. Had a great time. You feel bad about it. No. Victim was crime. Did you get a haircut for this? Because you usually have the bald haircut. Oh, I grew. Cause that's all, that's all the other ones.
All that's Danny, that's a concrete or Danny Jones's podcast. I softened my look a little bit. Yeah. I grew my hair. I don't do the bald head anymore. Yeah. Yeah. I made some changes, made some lifestyle changes. Yeah. So Michigan, you were born in Michigan. Yeah, I was born in Michigan. I was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan.
It's a small town about 30 minutes north of, well, about 30, about 20 minutes north of Detroit, downtown Detroit. Yeah, small manufacturing kind of town. You know, not a lot of wealth concentrated in the area. Right. You know, just working class, just middle working class, you know, not giant homes or anything like that. Yeah. So I have two younger sisters. Oh, okay.
I have a younger brother and I have an older brother. Yeah. But me and my younger brother have the same mom, different dads. Right. Me and my older brother have the same dads, different moms. And then me and my younger two sisters have the same dads and different moms. So it's... I didn't know that at all. Yeah, it's all... I just know Chris. It's spread out all over the place.
So your parents got divorced and... No, my parents were never married. Oh, well, they weren't – you were raised in a single-family home. You know, I don't even think – Single-family home. Did I just say single-family home? Single-family home. Single-mother household. Single-mother household. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't meet my dad until I was like seven or eight years old. Oh, okay.
Yeah, so like they – something happened. To this day, I can't get the full story out of either one of them, neither my mom nor my dad. But I got a little bit out of one of my uncles, and I didn't find this out until later. He was like, oh, yeah, your dad – you know, you didn't start coming around until you were seven or eight years old.
I was like, I didn't, I don't remember that, you know, because you don't remember things from when you're that age. And yeah, you know, it's, you know, he just wasn't there. Like growing up, him and my mom didn't have a relationship at all. Like, so like when my mom would go, when I would go to my dad for the weekend, they would pull up, we'd meet at Kmart.
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Chapter 2: How did John Boseak's early life shape his criminal activities?
I had a lot of angry years as a youth. So what happened when you were, like, you know, did you, were you a good student? Did you get in trouble as a kid? Did you, you know? Right, no. So school. Jeez, this is, we're digging out cobwebs now. I haven't thought about school in so long. I always got good grades, but... I was class clown.
I needed the attention from the other kids, so I would just do shit to make people laugh. Plus, everybody's been telling me my whole life that I'm this super intelligent person, but I don't really think so. I think I'm just really good at being full of shit. You know what I mean? Like I'm really good at making people believe that I'm a lot smarter than I really am.
You know, if that makes any kind of sense at all, you know, it's like a scam. And yeah, it's just, you know, my intelligence is really just a scam that I'm running. Since we're on the topic of identity theft, have you ever gone online and searched your name and seen how many data brokers have your information available for sale?
These brokers sell your information to spammers, scammers, and anybody that's targeting you. In my day, I had to go out and either survey people, make phone calls, run ads to gather all this type of information, your name, date of birth, email address, home address, relatives information, but all of that is available online through brokers. That's why I use Aura, the sponsor of today's video.
Aura automatically shows me the brokers that have my information and have it available for sale, and they automatically fill out an opt-out request for me. Cleaning up my information helps reduce the amount of spam that I get and protects me from hackers who could use that information to get access to my social media accounts, my bank accounts, and other sensitive information.
Recently, AT&T revealed that over 73 million customer records have been released on the dark web. AT&T is recommending that those affected use stronger passwords, monitor their account activity, and consider credit freezes or fraud alerts from credit bureaus. Well, Aura does all this for me.
And best of all, I don't have to download several different apps just because a company couldn't keep my data secure. If my information was compromised in the AT&T data breach, I wouldn't be worried because Aura is always on. It's always protecting me. I value my privacy and yours. All you have to do is go to aura.com slash matt to start your two-week free trial.
Also, we're going to leave the link in the description box. But I used to finish my work before everybody else because, I don't know, it was easy. And so then I would just start fucking with people in class and I would always get in trouble, you know. But like I said, I would get the grades. Like, so the grades were there, but they just, the behavioral problems, you know. Right. Right.
What are you going to do? Didn't you burn down your grandfather's barn or shed or something like that? The tool shed. Yeah. And I was involved in the incident, but I didn't do it. No, see, me and my cousin. So my grandfather was like an alcoholic, like hardcore.
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Chapter 3: What led to John's transition into credit card fraud?
So I decided, you know, and I'm poor, you know, so I can't afford to go buy a $500 bicycle for me. Are you kidding me? And so, you know, I decided to be a thief, which I had learned. And I'll tell a few stories from my early, early childhood, which I think kind of made me... become a thief for a brief period in my life. Like I, like if it wasn't bolted down, I was stealing it. Right.
Like at one point in time in my life, like I was like, and then it's like it ended. Like I just stopped stealing after that. I don't know what it was. You know, maybe I grew a conscious, maybe had a little bit of empathy. Maybe I just got a little bit older. Maybe, maybe I just got tired of, of getting caught for petty bullshit, but I just stopped stealing at one point in my life anyway.
So I, I throw these bicycles over the, over the, over the fence and, And I'm riding one bicycle and I've got one on the handlebars and I've got one I could grab by the grip and ride out next to me. And I rode them all the way to my house and took them all apart. What'd you do with them? Sell them? Yeah. Oh, I was running like a little, like a chop shop, if you will, like a bicycle chop shop.
Like, oh yeah, I was just, I stole, if I just seen a bicycle, I was grabbing it. Like it didn't matter, even if it didn't matter if I was already on a bicycle because I learned how to ride. I could put a bicycle on the handlebars of a bicycle and ride two bicycles at once if I had to. Thank you. you know? So yeah, I was just, I was on, it's like a stealing spree. And this was a teenage year.
So this is between the age of like 13 to 16. Did you get caught? I mean, did you get caught? Oh yeah. I got caught. I told some girl, I went over, like we were skipping school at some girl's house and we went to her house after we stole the bicycles. Cause I was with a buddy of mine when I did this. And we were like, we got to her house and she was skipping school.
And like, so I thought like everything was cool to just like, kind of like, yeah, we just stole these bikes from the next day. I was in school and, And they say, my name comes on the PA getting called down to the office.
And I'm like, and sure enough, yeah, I was there and the cops were there and I got handcuffed and walked out of school and they waited until the bell rung and everybody was in the hallways. They could have took me out when the hallways were empty in between classes, but they waited and And they waited to all the hall, yeah, till everything filled, everybody was there so they could embarrass me.
Yeah, this is a good lesson to the other kids. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that was embarrassing. And that was my very first time really ever getting in trouble. What happened? Probation. Yeah, probation that I did never complete it successfully. I've been on probation maybe 12 or 13 times in my life.
Never once ever have I ever completed one full term all the way to the end. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What methods did John use to manufacture counterfeit credit cards?
you know, people that like emboss, like, you know, like Bible page, like, you know, you can put your name in like the front of a Bible, you know, like had that back in the day, like the gold, that's what it was for, you know, but I was using it to manufacture credit cards.
And once I figured out the foil, you know, I got that figured out and then I got, you know, over the edge printing, there was no difference between the card I was making and the ones that were issued from like Bank of America or Wells Fargo or whatever. And you're able to put whatever information you want on the front of the card, the name of the, you can buy the track information.
That was done with a separate machine. So there was three or four pieces of equipment you needed initially. There was the encoder that would encode the magnetic strip. There was the printer that would print the card. There was the heat press that would heat press the foil on the front of the card. It was called actually a tipping, hot foil tipping machine.
And then the last piece of equipment you needed was the actual, it was called an embossing machine. And that's what would actually put the physical, puncture the physical numbers into the card. I don't think they even do that anymore, do they? Some of them they print them on now. Some of them they emboss them. Some are printed. Some are embossed.
I think they're just printing them now, to be honest with you. Yeah, but I had one. Oh, I can feel it. No, it's embossed. It's embossed. It's embossed. I mean, sometimes they print them. Sometimes they emboss them. The ones that are printed are printed on the rear of the card now. Oh, yeah. Look, that's full. The one I just showed you was partially embossed. It's like a printed on it.
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Chapter 5: How did John begin selling counterfeit cards and what were his sales strategies?
Yeah. This is actually embossed. You can see the back of it. Sure, yep. I just got this card. Yeah, full embossed. And at the time, I had to order what's called a manual embossing machine. Right. So you buy it, and it's this machine. It's got a giant wheel on the front of it, on the top, and it's got all these different characters on the wheel.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G. It's got the whole alphabet, and then it's got all the numbers, and then it's got uppercase, and then it's got lowercase, and then it's got your special characters. So you would have to put the card in this tray, and you'd slide the card into the machine. You had a handle. You used to punch the card manually. Zzz. A, click, click. J, click, click.
So I'd have to manually punch these cards, which was BS. But that machine was only like $100, $150. And then I eventually had got the... Ooh, what was the name of this machine? It was called a data, data card, fully automated embossing where you just put the cards in, you program it on the laptop and it goes, and it just spits the card out the side. So I wouldn't have to do the embossing, man.
But it was, it was a slow progression up into the point where I could afford this, you know, more expensive equipment. And once I started making cards, once I got to the point where I could make cards that were, Looked like they came from a financial institution. Then I was like, well, now I might have a different marketable product on my hands. So now you don't actually have to use the card.
You can sell them. Yeah, I can just go. Yeah, that's what I set out to do. I was like, man, that's taken 90% of the risk completely out of the equation. What do you sell them? How do you sell them? These forums I was telling you about earlier, these carding forums, that's where... This is pre-Silk Road. This is pre-Onion Router. This is pre-Dark Web. The Dark Web didn't even exist at this time.
There was no Dark Web. You couldn't go and look up all... They had carding forums. You know? And these carding forums were like, they would get shut down every other week or they would get mass infiltrated by FBI and everybody you're talking to on the forums, a law enforcement, you know? So it's like, but that didn't come until later. So I got in, in the early days of the forums.
And so each forum had something called a moderator or, or moderators, you know, they had just a group of people that maintain the, maintain the site. They would kick people off. They would give other people, you know, certain access. Uh, and there was like, Back in the day, they don't really have forums anymore. What's the closest thing to a forum now? Reddit? Probably.
Reddit's like the closest thing now that I could describe what these forums were like. They were just like Reddit pages and they were just threads where you had this thread and you'd click on it and be like, okay, information. So they had these seller threads where I could go and I could be like, you know,
us plastico and that's what i branded myself as which in the end came back to bite me because i think they just went after me a little bit harder because because i branded myself i gave up my location first of all you know here i am in the united states which it was dumb in the beginning but i didn't really you i didn't understand all of that when i first initially got involved dumb stuff too
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Chapter 6: What led to John's eventual arrest and how did he handle the situation?
I just messaged the moderators of the forums and I'd sent them pieces of plastic so that they could verify that I was a legitimate sender. I sent it to them for free here. This is my product. They'd review my product. And then they would give me, they would allow me to pay them in Bitcoin and And I would take out like banner ads on the forum.
So as soon as you went on to like the main page of the forum, they would have these banner ads up top that would say US Plastico, plastic vendor, and then would be my ICQ number. And back in the day, ICQ was like this chat, this like encrypted chat. You know, this is before where they use now like Telegram and WeChat and like Canoe and all that shit. Or was it Canoe? Yeah.
Or whatever, all these like end to end encrypted chat systems. This is back in the day. So it was like ICQ. No, it was IR, IRC was before ICQ. Like the IRC was even way even before that. So it had my IRC and then eventually went to ICQ, you know, and that's what, yeah, I would pay them to vend. And that's basically how I got into it in like the very beginning.
That's when, that's how it all is, how it all started. And so what people order, they just go on there and they say, hey, I want 20 cards or I want 40 cards. Right. So I would have like package deals. Like I wasn't going to nickel and dime. I wasn't going to sell them one piece at a time, two pieces at a time. I had package deals. So I would set it up like it was a three-tier sales strategy.
kind of program where it was like your top tier was like your gold tier. That was, um, a thousand cards. It was a thousand dollars. So I had a thousand dollar tier, um, a $500 tier and like a $200 tier. So the $200 tier was like, I think you get 10 cards and you get, um, one driver's license, but the driver's license was a little bit extra. That was like a hundred dollars extra.
If you wanted to include the driver's license with the silver package, then the, the bronze package was like, uh, for $500, you get 50 cards and then you get a two novelty driver's licenses with the 50 cards.
Uh, and then the thousand dollar package, which was like the gold package was, uh, you get for a thousand dollars, you get, um, a hundred cards, a hundred debit cards, uh, five driver's licenses. Um, and, uh, I don't remember if, and then each one had stipulations on like refills.
Um, so like with the gold package, like if you ordered the gold package, uh, and if like three of your cards didn't work, you could get like up to like three or five, um, replacements for those cards. Like, you know, but honestly the card not working as your own fault, but I would just throw that in there, you know, right. It's like a sales, it's like a sales tactic. Um,
Yeah, so I had three tiers, and then I just went on about messaging. So this kind of goes on for what? I mean, what's kind of the next thing that happens? The timeline? Is it Chris, or is it the... Yeah, no, my brother... So I'm sending my brother cards in Michigan. I'm making cards at this point. I'm sending them to him.
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Chapter 7: What daily challenges did John face during his probation?
So now I got to call this phone number every single day. And it says, you have to report today. You do not have to report today. Like, so it's every single day either says yes or it says no. And if it says yes, then that means I have to go down. I have to do a UA, urine analysis. I got to pee in a cup. I got to see the probation. I mean, it was random. Right. You know?
And so that went on for about a month or two. And then I just absconded. I just stopped. I think I dropped dirty one time. Cause I'm steady. I'm smoking at this point. I'm not going to stop smoking. You know, I'm just going to, if it says you have to report today, I would go down. I would get this, this flush, this drink, you would drink it.
And then you would fill it up twice with water and drink two of those. And then you were good for like four hours. Like every P you did for four hours after that was going to be clean. And I, and it was, it was called ready clean actually. No, it was called Q-Carbo 16, actually. That's what it was called. Q-Carbo 16, I swear to God, that stuff works. I used it the entire time.
I smoked every single day, all day long, and every time I had to take a test, that Q-Carbo 16 or Q-Carbo 32 works like a dream. So, yeah, I absconded. Yeah. I dipped and we moved. We like moved. We like, okay, we're just going to move from one side of Tampa to the other.
We moved from Temple Terrace to like what they call Suitcase City to North Tampa, like Fletcher and like the 20th and Fletcher over by University Mall over in that area. That's rough. Yeah, it was an apartment. I was in University Club Apartments over there right by the mall, right in that little road that cuts through from Fletcher to the mall right there by McDonald's and shit.
now it's kind of, it's not that so bad now. I mean, it's still, it's still run down and low and you know, um, poverty, but it's like back then there was like shootings and robberies and all kinds of crazy shit going on. So at one point, the probation officer had called you and you said, I'm in Michigan. Didn't you say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know this because I got the report.
They stake out, like they send like the U.S. Marshals or the task force. The Marshals. Yeah, the Marshals. And they stake out like several of his cousins and they kick in the door to his uncle's house. My uncle calls me right after they left. Like, dude, they showed up with like AR-15s and the thing that hit the door and everything. He's not in Michigan. No, I'm not.
I mean, yeah, I'm just on the other side of the city. I was in the same city. I was just on the other side of the city. Where? In Michigan? No, in Florida. Oh, I know, but that's what I'm saying.
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Chapter 8: What led to John's eventual arrest by the U.S. Marshals?
You're not in Michigan. No, I wasn't in Michigan. His uncle's in Michigan. Yeah, meanwhile, the marshals are kicking in doors in Michigan looking for me. They're raiding everybody's houses. My uncle calls me right after they leave. He's like, dude, I just got done burning and they kicked my door in looking for you. I was like, oh my God, better you than me.
So then I knew they were looking for me. The next day after I got off the phone with my uncle, the US Marshals show up at my place and arrest me pretty much. Yeah, and they take me back to jail and then this time they had to extradite me from Florida all the way to South Carolina. Because mind you, I'm catching the Amtrak up to South Carolina going to all my court dates up until this point.
But you realize at this point that it is for South Carolina. Well, you kind of skipped over that. Like, Oh yeah, I'm sorry. So when I went, so when I went to court, when they released me in my own recognizance, that's when I found out they're like, okay, when I went in front of the guy, they go, you have a warrant for your arrest out of the middle district of South Carolina. I'm like, Oh my God.
I was, I was kind of relieved, but at the same time, I'm like, Oh my God, dude, what are you kidding me? Four years, almost four years goes by and you people would just now, now you're just picking me up. You know, like what the Man, so whatever. So yeah, and then I get home, and my wife disposed of everything. She got rid of all the printers, and so I had no way to make any money at this point.
So they grabbed you. Yeah, they picked me up. Did they move you back to South Carolina? Yeah, they had to extradite me from Florida to South Carolina, and then when I get to South Carolina, they gave me another bond. I got a bond when I got to South Carolina. That's insane, bro. I never got a bond. Got a bond in South Carolina. And he's absconded twice, and they gave him another bond.
Yeah, they gave me a bond when I got to South Carolina. I couldn't bond. They didn't bond me out. My wife didn't bond me out, though. Right. Because she was, who knows what she was on. Like, when I went to prison, when I went to jail, like, my life, my wife just was like, I don't know what she did, but she didn't give a fuck about me. Like, I wasn't her number one priority.
Like, you know, most people go to jail and they're married. Like, we're married. Right. They are usually like on the phone every day. Like, do you need, what are you? All right. Do you need anything? Do you even make phone calls? What's going on here? We are with the judges. Let me talk to a lawyer. None of that. Yeah. None of that dude. She disappeared, disappeared.
Like I, like I would call her phone from jail and like it would be either disconnected or she wouldn't accept the phone call because she didn't have money to put on the, on the phone to pay for the phone calls. Cause that's just expensive. Yeah. So the whole time I'm just sitting in South Carolina, like, I don't know what's going on.
I don't know why, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm just sitting here, you know, I get a court appointed attorney, Catherine Abbott, an angel from heaven, pretty much, um, best court appointed lawyer. I, you know, it's federal, so it's a little bit different than, you know, it's not the meat grinder. Yeah. Yeah.
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