Brett Johnson SAME_AS Gollumfun
Jack explicitly refers to Brett as Gollumfun, and the episode presents the two identities as the same person.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“Brett, or Gollumfun”
Episode
29 November 2022 Official episode · Official transcript
black hat cybercrime dark web carding
Jack Rhysider interviews Brett Johnson about online fraud, ShadowCrew, his work as a Secret Service informant, underground criminal forums, and later cybercrime-related activity.
Topics: Online marketplace fraud, Off-platform payment fraud, Criminal forum collaboration, Stolen credit-card trafficking, Tax-refund identity theft, Counterfeit cashier’s checks, Keylogging malware, Email and account compromise, VPN-mediated forum access, Law-enforcement infiltration of criminal forums, Informant operations, Social engineering, Controlled delivery, ATM cash-out operations, Prepaid debit cards
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
No Sources heading on this episode page.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Brett Johnson SAME_AS Gollumfun
Jack explicitly refers to Brett as Gollumfun, and the episode presents the two identities as the same person.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“Brett, or Gollumfun”
Gollumfun USES stolen credit-card fraud
Gollumfun is described as engaging in stolen-credit-card activity.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“ordering things with stolen credit cards, cashing out on stolen credit cards”
Gollumfun USES tax return identity theft
Brett says he repeatedly committed tax-return fraud and tax-return identity theft.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I was probably stealing – probably $20,000 a week doing that on tax return fraud”
Gollumfun USES counterfeit cashier’s checks
After ShadowCrew was shut down, Brett says he used counterfeit cashier’s checks to survive.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“the only thing I’m left doing is running counterfeit cashier’s checks”
Gollumfun USES social engineering
Brett used social engineering to distract Secret Service agents during an apartment search and conceal illegal items.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“Brett tricked the Secret Service agents and took advantage of their trust to social engineer them”
Gollumfun USES controlled delivery
A controlled delivery was used to arrest Brett after he ordered food with stolen credit cards.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“So they – it was controlled delivery. I go to pick up the steaks”
Gollumfun USES prepaid debit cards
Brett repeatedly used prepaid debit cards in connection with tax-refund fraud.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I take that $30 and I walk my ass to Walmart and I buy a prepaid debit card”
“I’ve got prepaid debit cards”
ShadowCrew ASSOCIATED_WITH Brett Johnson
Jack describes ShadowCrew as Brett’s online home and says Brett owned and operated the website.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“His home online was shadowcrew.com, a website he owned and operated”
Gollumfun ASSOCIATED_WITH Counterfeit Library
Brett says Counterfeit Library was one of the criminal collaboration sites that enabled this type of fraud.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“before those sites we were talking about, Counterfeit Library and ShadowCrew”
Gollumfun ASSOCIATED_WITH ShadowCrew
Brett says he posted tutorials on ShadowCrew explaining how to commit eBay fraud and walked people through it.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I remember clearly posting many tutorials on how to do this type of fraud on eBay, and even walking people through it”
Albert Gonzalez MEMBER_OF Gollumfun
Albert Gonzalez is described as a member of ShadowCrew; the catalog identifies ShadowCrew’s criminal-actor entity as Gollumfun.
Derived Confidence 72% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“He was a member on ShadowCrew and eventually became the forum techie”
Albert Gonzalez USES VPN
Albert set up a VPN and required users to connect through it to access ShadowCrew.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“Albert set up a VPN and forced users to connect through that to get to the site”
Brett Johnson MEMBER_OF United States Secret Service
After his arrest, Brett agreed to work for the Secret Service and was paid to conduct online investigations.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I started going to work every day for the Secret Service, trying to catch criminals online”
Brett Johnson USES Specter Pro
While Brett conducted investigations, Secret Service personnel used Specter Pro to monitor activity on his laptop.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“they have me on a laptop computer ... Meanwhile they have Specter Pro and Camtasia on my laptop”
Brett Johnson USES Camtasia
While Brett conducted investigations, Secret Service personnel used Camtasia to capture screenshots of activity on his laptop.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“they have Specter Pro and Camtasia on my laptop. So, they’re getting keystrokes and they’re taking snapshots”
Brett attributes the compromise of his accounts and the monitoring of his activity to a keylogger operated by Manos Di.
Explicit Confidence 91% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I think it’s a keylogger on the system”
“that’s what Manos Di did, was all that”
Brett says Manos Di compromised his GTE mail account and locked him out of it.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“he’s compromised my GTE mail account and has shut me out of it”
Brett says Manos Di took over the eGold account during the keylogger incident.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“He even takes over our eGold account at one point”
Manos Di POSSIBLY_SAME_AS Max Butler
Brett’s theory is that Manos Di was Max Butler, but he says he does not know this for certain.
Uncertain Confidence 94% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“My theory is it was Max. I don’t know. Max was the only one competent enough to do it”
La Cosa Nostra USES keylogger
The site was reported to have a keylogger that downloaded to visitors and recorded their keystrokes.
Attributed Confidence 98% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“La Cosa Nostra has a keylogger on the site. Anyone who visits the site, a keylogger’s downloaded to it”
La Cosa Nostra ASSOCIATED_WITH Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The episode says the person running La Cosa Nostra worked for the RCMP and that the site was an RCMP investigation.
Attributed Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“La Cosa Nostra was an RCMP investigation”
Operation Angler Fish INVOLVES Brett Johnson
Operation Angler Fish is described as involving Brett’s work for the Secret Service and his subsequent wanted status.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“it’s talking about Operation Angler Fish and the work I’ve done for the Secret Service and how I’m wanted”
Brett Johnson AUTHORED The Brett Johnson Show
Jack says Brett makes the podcast The Brett Johnson Show.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 129 Details
“he also makes a podcast called The Brett Johnson Show”
Jack Rhysider REFERENCES The Brett Johnson Show
Jack says he first learned Brett’s story by listening to The Brett Johnson Show.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Brett Johnson EP 129 Details
“I first learned about his story by listening to his podcast called The Brett Johnson Show”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T07:49:47.278734+00:00