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Phantom Secure

$80M from 20,000 criminal users

2 transcript mentions
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’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’262
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  • Number1 · 50%
  • Story1 · 50%
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  • Shaan2 · 100%
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  • SaaS / Software2 · 67%
  • Pricing1 · 33%
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#192Making Billions with Greeting Cards, How the FBI Took Down Thousands of Criminals, & Rich People (not) Paying Taxes2×

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$4K/userRevenue per userEP 192 · 35:52 · SHAAN · Phantom Secure · WhatsApp

In the moments

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Number

Phantom Secure: $80M from 20,000 criminals at $4,000 per user

The encrypted-phone service Phantom Secure had 20,000 users and made $80M — about $4,000 per user, versus roughly $2 per user for WhatsApp. Shaan calls it an enterprise product for criminals.

$4K
Revenue per user · USD/user
“Phantom Secure at its peak had 20,000 users. It made $80 million off those 20,000 users. So just for like math because you would pay to use it, right? Because for you, you're like, this is a business tool for me. If I'm a criminal, I need secure messaging. I'll pay for this. And so they were making $4,000 per user. And just for like comparison, WhatsApp makes like $2 per user.”
EP 192 · 35:52 · SHAAN
Read at 35:52
mfmindex.com№ 0192-2152
Story

The FBI ran its own encrypted phone app and let criminals trust it for 18 months

After arresting the Phantom Secure founder, the FBI launched its own encrypted app, Anom, on ~12,000 phones, let it spread by referral through criminal networks for 18 months while reading every message, then took everyone down at once.

“So they created this app called Anon, like Anonymous, and they put it on 12,000 phones and they let it be out there for 18 months for criminals to use and start to trust and refer other criminals onto it. And the whole time every message is going to the FBI's secure servers, but they just waited.”
EP 192 · 37:10 · SHAAN
Read at 37:10
mfmindex.com№ 0192-2230