At least 24 people in 13 countries have been arrested in a US-led sting operation targeting illegal trafficking of credit card information.

美国领导的一场打击非法交易信用卡信息的突击行动在13个国家至少逮捕了24名嫌疑人。

The swoop¹（猛扑） came after a two-year undercover FBI investigation² spanning four continents.

Operation Card Shop tracked those buying and selling information through a fake, FBI-run online forum³ on such "carding" schemes.

Twelve of the arrests were in the United States, with six in the UK.

All of the detained are men ranging in age from 18 to 25. Some face 40 years in prison if convicted on fraud-related charges.

One of the men, Mir Islam, known online as "JoshTheGod", was charged with trafficking in 50,000 stolen credit card numbers.

In total, investigators⁴ notified credit card providers of more than 400,000 compromised accounts.

US officials said the operation prevented losses of $205m (£131m) from debit⁵ and credit cards.

The sting focused around an online forum called Carder Profit, set up by the FBI in June 2010, where users could exchange stolen account and card numbers.

Investigators identified alleged⁶ cybercriminals in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.

US district attorney Preet Bharara said in a statetment: "Clever computer criminals operating behind the supposed veil of the internet are still subject to the long arm of the law."