Romeo Stepanenko, 3W3RR
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B Rufzeichen / Call Signs
Provisorische Liste / Work in progress
Short list of Romeo's Call Signs
1S0RR, 1S0XV, 1S1RR, 3W3RR/UF6F (earthquake rescue operation), 3W3RR/mm (South China Sea), 3W5JA, 3W7A, 3W8AA, 3W100HCM, 4J1FM, 4J1FW, 4J0Q, 4L/AH0M, 4U1ITU, 4U1VIC, 5A0RR, 9D0RR, 9H3UP, 9H50VE, 9Y4/AH0M, AH0M, AH0M/am (Bermuda Triangle perambulation), AH0M/VE2, AH0M/VE3, AH0M/W4 (Dry Tortugas Isl.), BY1PK, DL/AH0M, EK0JA, EK0RR/am (hot air balloon), EK0RR/mm (Russian Navy submarine), EW8TJ, FJ/AH0M, FS/AH0M, HB0/3W3RR, HB9/AH0M, IT9/AH0M (Etna volcano), J37/AH0M, J6/AH0M, JA3ZTN, JI1ZTA, KP2/AH0M, KP4/AH0M, LZ1KDP, LZ9A, LZ/AH0M, OE/AH0M, OK8ERR, OM9CRR, P5RS7, PJ2/AH0M, PJ7/AH0M, R3A (Russian Parliament, 20-21 August 1991), RB4JWS/UF1O (South Ossetia), RB4JWS/UF1Q (Adzharia), RB4JWS/UF1V (Abkhazia), RO/3W3RR (Pridnestrovie), S79R, TA1/3W3RR, TA2/3W3RR, UB5JRR, UB5JRR/UA6E (Mount Elbrus), UB5JRR/UA6X, UQ1GWW, V2A/AH0M, VP2E/AH0M, VP2M/AH0M, VP2M/AH0M/am (helicopter), VP5/AH0M, XE2/AH0M, XV2A, XV0SU, XV100HCM, XY0RR, YA0RR, YL1WW, YL75ID (Island of Death), as well as the guest operations courtesy to the friends' & clubs' hospitality worldwide: 5B4, 8Q7, 9H1, 9H4, A41, A61, AP2, DL, EA, EI, EP, ES, G, I, HA, HB9, HB0, JA, OE, OK, PA, SP, UA1-0, UC2, UD6, UH8, UI8, UL7, UO5, TA, VE2-3, VO2, VU2, W1-8, YK, YL, YO
Detailed list of Romeo's Call Signs ► Mehr/read on
C The early years
Romeo Stepanenko was born 1964 in the Ukraine, son of Vladimir Stepanenko UB1RR who most probably introduced him to amateur radio. Nothing is known, to date, of Romeo's childhood and youth, or of his military service. Nor do we know where and when he obtained his license.
His own accounts start in early 1989:
1989: 3W3RR, Vietnam
Romeo, meanwhile, had enrolled with a joint Soviet-Vietnamese company, Kiulong, and on that firm's payroll went to Vietnam, in late 1989.
The Minister of telecommunications of that country wanted to create an Amateur Radio Society; so, after a little thinking, I accepted a job to conduct courses for new hams, create a club station, produce rules and regulations for the Vietnamese. During the day I taught my hams-to-be; at night I got on the air and operated" 3W3RR.
April/May 1990: 1S0XV/1S1RR, Spratly
Expedition-Video: hier - YouTube video here: : 
ext. Link -- Quoting from Romeo's report: "By February <1990> I had established some good connections with the local officials in Saigon and started gathering information ... to look into the possibility of a Spratly operation. ... Finally it was becoming clear that this matter could be resolved only in Hanoi, at the highest level.
January and December, 1991: YA0RR, Afghanistan
The idea of reactivating amateur radio in the middle of political chaos was certainly both a questionable and daring undertaking, but one man held on to this crazy idea: Romeo Stepanenko 3W3RR, who allegedly used his excellent personal contacts to further this adventure. Due to his secretive activities a widespread rumor stubbornly existed that Romeo may have been a high-ranking official of the Soviet secret service KGB. Romeo did not want to disclose how he obtained his license...
Romeo's photo album (Courtesy ofSilversun)
1 - Flight Moscow-Tashkent / 2 - Fluight Tashkent - Kabul / 3, 4 - Kabul Airport / 5, 6 - Kabul street scenes / 7 - ??? / 8 - The Shack / 9 - On the road in Mazar-al-Sharif / 10 - Mazar-al-Sharif
1991: Moscow interlude for a new-born hero - and a trip around the world
The incredible career of Romeo Stepanenko - and a world-tour
YouTube video: 
ext. Link -- Russia's "White House" in Moscow is the seat of the Russian government. The building figured prominently on the morning of 19 August, 1991: Soviet officials launched a coup. Boris Yeltsin left for the Russian White House shortly after the coup was announced, encountering tanks and armored personnel carriers along the way. At 1 p.m. he climbed atop a tank positioned just outside the building, denounced the coup as unconstitutional, and called for Gorbachev's release from house arrest. Radio amateurs took a vital role during these dramatic hours.
September 1991: XY0RR, Myanmar - and 1S0VX/1S1RR, Spratly, again
Only a few days after his spectacular appearance in Moscow, Romeo landed his next coup, something just unthinkable (or so people thought at that time): From 30 August, 1991 he activated, the former Burma. It was the first (initially) recognized amateur rdsio operation after almost thirty years. No wonder that Myanmar ranked amongst the most wanted DXCC Entities worldwide. For two weeks four Soviet hams activated XYØRR.
August 1992: 9D0RR, Iran / December 1992: P5RS7, North Korea
Romeo Stepanenko, the unsurpassed big gun of amateur radio...
It was Romeo's greatest time. He was celebrated as a hero, invited to every major hamvention, honoured guest and everybody's darling. He obtained a US license and, in fact, collected call sign after call sign in incredibly short time - adding up to about fifty. Romeo was the highlight at the Dayton hamvention, in 1992, where we signed QSL cards and met his buddies. And the miracles continued: Romeo even topped his fame by activating another two "impossible" DXCC Entities.
August 1993: 5A0RR, Libya
The Last Coup
Romeo states, "Originally, plans called for the use of six amateur radio operators for 5A, but due to the lack of funding we had to limit ourselves to three operators: Said (Libyan), who currently holds the call sign 5A0RR, Danny, LZ2UU and myself. During the operation, which lasted five days, we worked over 11,000 stations...
February 1996: Romeo's decline and fall
The game is over
DX Bulletin 11 ARLD011 - From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT - February 21, 1996 -To all radio amateurs SB DX ARL ARLD011 ARLD011
Awards committee vote
The ARRL Awards Committee met recently to review submitted documentation for the 1992-93 P5RS7 operation submitted by Romeo Stepanenko. After a review of all material available, the Awards Committee voted unanimously to disqualify Romeo Stepanenko from participation in the DXCC program. This disqualification is based upon Rule 12, Operations Ethics, and Rule 13. The disqualification means that Stepanenko is not eligible to participate in the DXCC program in any manner. This includes, as provided for under Rule 12, paragraph (b) disallowance of contacts made with any station or DXpedition operated by him from the time of this action.
Ending behind bars
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES OPERATION WEB SNARE TARGETING ONLINE FRAUD AND CRIME
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray, FBI Assistant Director Jana Monroe, Chief Postal Inspector Lee Heath, and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras today announced the arrests or convictions of more than 150 individuals and the return of 117 criminal complaints, indictments, and informations in a collaborative nationwide enforcement operation directed at major forms of online economic crime and other cybercrimes.
The ongoing action, which included arrests of several people earlier today, is known as Operation Web Snare. This initiative involved coordination among 36 U.S. Attorneys’ offices nationwide, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, 37 of the FBI's 56 field divisions, 13 of the Postal Inspection Service's 18 field divisions, the FTC, together with a variety of other federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies.
Attorney General Ashcroft also announced that he has directed the various Justice Department offices to make full use of the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, signed into law by President Bush on July 15. The Act prescribes stiff prison terms for those who use identity theft to commit other crimes. The Attorney General’s directive instructs law enforcement to use the Act’s provisions in any appropriate investigation or prosecution involving identity theft, including fraud, organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism-related matters.
Operation Web Snare is targeting a variety of online economic crimes including identity theft, fraud, counterfeit software, computer intrusions, and other intellectual property crimes. The cases involved show the extent to which alleged online criminal activity increasingly is not only multi-jurisdictional, but involves the blending of traditional crimes with various forms of computer crime, such as computer intrusion and malicious computer programs.
“Operation Web Snare also shows that America’s justice community is seeking to anticipate, out think and adapt to new trends in Internet crime,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “This effort shows how effective law enforcement can be against online crime when all levels of government -- domestically and internationally -- work together.”
More than 160 investigations have been opened as part of Web Snare, which ran from June 1 to August 26, 2004. Investigators have identified more than 150,000 victims with estimated losses of more than $215 million. More than 140 search and seizure warrants were executed as part of the operation, and prosecutors have obtained 117 criminal complaints, informations, and indictments to date. The charges have led to more than 150 arrests or convictions.
Some of the charges filed in districts throughout the country include:
[…]In the Northern District of California, Roman Vega of Ukraine made an initial appearance in federal court after being extradited from Cyprus to face a 40-count indictment alleging credit card trafficking and wire fraud. Vega allegedly used Internet chat rooms to traffic in credit card information of thousands of individuals that had been illegally obtained from sources around the world, including credit card processors and merchants. Vega was also allegedly an operator of a website at ext. Link where stolen and counterfeit credit card account information was allegedly bought and sold.
[…]Operation Web Snare represents a significant component of law enforcement’s concerted and coordinated response to the rising numbers of reports about Internet-related economic crime to government agencies and other organizations. The Federal Trade Commission reported that Internet-related complaints accounted for 55 percent of all consumer fraud reports that it received in 2003, up from 45 percent in 2002. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) - a joint project of the FBI and the National White-Collar Crime Center - reported that it referred 71,442 Internet-related fraud complaints to law enforcement in 2003, and 42,183 Internet-related fraud complaints in the first half of 2004. (By comparison, the IC3 referred to law enforcement 48,252 Internet-related fraud complaints in 2002, and 16,775 Internet-related fraud complaints in 2001.)
For some types of online crime, such as "phishing" -- the use of emails and websites resembling those of legitimate organizations to commit identity theft and fraud -- the incidence of reporting has grown dramatically. In the first six months of 2004, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry coalition, the number of unique phishing attacks increased by more than 800 percent -- from 176 in January, 2004 to 1,422 in June, 2004.
Operation Web Snare is a follow-up to Operation E-Con and Operation Cyber Sweep, which Attorney General Ashcroft announced in May and November 2003, respectively. E-Con resulted in the execution of 70 search and seizure warrants and charges against more than 130 individuals. Cyber Sweep resulted in the execution of more than 90 search and seizure warrants and the arrests or convictions of more than 125 individuals.
At this stage we lost the trail. Further research, however, revealed that the case was moved to the Eastern District of New York Authorities, in October 1997.
Kevin Normoyle, AD6Z (ex KE6RAD) puboished the folowing note on 4L5A's web page, summing up various US sources:
"One of the first individuals to create a sustainable business model.based on cybercrime was a certain Roman Vega of Ukraine, a.k.a. Roman Stepanenko, a.k.a. "BOA" (now known as inmate #59198-004 in the Federal Bureau of Prisons), who started a website called Boa Factory in the late 1990s. Boa Factory was a one-stop clearing house for buying and selling virtually all assets produced by financially-motivated online criminal activity of that time. One could get plastic cards, raw "dumps" (magnetic stripe data from bank and credit cards), traveler's checks and even counterfeit passports. Vega was eventually arrested while vacationing in Cyprus (a popular European destination for Russian and Ukrainian tourists) in June 2004, extradited to California and charged with a 40-count indictment of wire fraud and trafficking in stolen credit cards. Another indictment in New York for access device fraud and money laundering followed 2 years later and convictions eventually secured.
Eventually, Boa Factory evolved into another organization called CarderPlanet , which was founded in May 2001 and operated through August 2004, at which point it was shut down by senior members of the group following high profile arrests of key members earlier that summer (including Boa). CarderPlanet was reportedlyorganized following a meeting at a restaurant in a Ukranian port city of Odessa between Roman Vega, his protege, individual going by the nickname 'Script', and several others. Together, they became the administrators (or 'Capo di Capi' as they chose to call themselves) of the forum and evolved it into a mature marketplace for purchase, review and distribution of cybercriminals goods and services, as well as providing tutorials for new members looking to get a quick 'Getting Started' guide to online fraud schemes."
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Press Release of the US Department of Justice, and other Press Releases [PDF , 25.5 KB]
Order, case moved from San Francisco to New York [PDF , 18.9 KB]
An update from Ed Kritsky...
(Photo: Romeo) We have tried time and again to find out about Romeo's whereabaouts after his detention. US authorities denied information, and Romeo's father, too, did not want to comment on his son's fate. But now Bernie McClenny, W3UR, the publisher of the Daily DX Bulletin, reveived an email from Ed Kritsky, NT2X, Romeo's buddy during the days of early fame, reprint and duplication permitted. Here is Ed's account:
...and an update from Romeo himself
Legal note: The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher of this web site.
"Currently I am incarcerated in New York’s MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center) in Brooklyn. I was arrested almost 10 years ago and have still not been sentenced by the American court. I was last arrested in 2003 in Cyprus, alleged to be Boa and charged (on the base of very flimsy and circumstantial evidence) of being one of the organizers and leaders of the criminal hacker-carder syndicate CarderPlanet and BoaFactory. A year and a half after the arrest, in 2004, I was extradited from Cyprus to the United States. My extradition documents were cooked by Cyprus police, based on the Interpol order initiated by the U.S. Government.
Romeo's "Jail QSLs"
Obviously, Romeo doesn't have access to radio equipment while he is in jail. However, to receive his jail-QSL, it's unnecessary to make on-air QSO with him. The numbered jail-card will be sent to anyone whose card Romeo receives by mail at his current jail's address: "If your QSL-card makes it through the jail's censorship, and arrives into my hands, this means that the jail-QSO has indeed taken place. Henceforth, you will find your callsign in the 3W3RR jail-pedition log ext. Link as well as on twitter @RomanVega_com. Afterwards you will receive by snail mail a 3W3RR jail-pedition numbered QSL card. According to the jail's mail policies, a prisoner is only permitted to receive letters, postcards, photos and printouts. QSLs are considered postcards, and generally make it through. Do not send IRCs, postage stamps, green stamps or S.A.S.E., as all of these are considered contraband and immediately trashed (frequently along with the entire envelope's contents). Books and magazines mailed from private parties are not permitted. CDs and DVDs are also prohibited,."
Send your QSL-cards only, nothing else, to the current jail's address:
Roman Vega / # 59198-004 / MDC Brooklyn / P.O.Box 329002 / Brooklyn, NY 11232, U.S.A.
(Note: Romeo was transferred, in April 2015, to Georgia (CI McRae).
Prior to mailing Romeo a QSL card, better to verify that he hasn't been transferred to another jail by checking his current address at ext. Link
December 2013: The verdict - 18 years!
Ukrainian National Who Co-Founded Cybercrime Marketplace Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2013
Roman Vega Co-Founded CarderPlanet, One of the First Online Marketplaces for Stolen Financial Data
BROOKLYN, NY – Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, Roman Vega, one of the world’s most prolific cybercriminals, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Vega, a Ukrainian national who co-founded the notorious Internet website CarderPlanet, pled guilty in 2009 to conspiracies to commit money laundering and access device fraud. At the time of his arrest, Vega possessed over half a million stolen credit card numbers.
January 2020: released!
From the York County Prison (PA) where he was held from November 2019, Romeo was escorted to the airplane jetway at JFK airport and on February 1, 2020 landed in Russia.
