How much are your medical records worth in the cybercrime underground? This week, KrebsOnSecurity discovered medical records being sold in bulk for as little as $6.40 apiece. The digital documents, several of which were obtained by sources working with this publication, were apparently stolen from a Texas-based life insurance company that now says it is working with federal authorities on an investigation into a possible data breach.

Purloined medical records are among the many illicit goods for sale on the Evolution Market, a black market bazaar that traffics mostly in narcotics and fraud-related goods — including plenty of stolen financial data. Evolution cannot be reached from the regular Internet. Rather, visitors can only browse the site using Tor, software that helps users disguise their identity by bouncing their traffic between different servers, and by encrypting that traffic at every hop along the way.

Last week, a reader alerted this author to a merchant on Evolution Market nicknamed “ImperialRussia” who was advertising medical records for sale. ImperialRussia was hawking his goods as “fullz” — street slang for a package of all the personal and financial records that thieves would need to fraudulently open up new lines of credit in a person’s name.

Each document for sale by this seller includes the would-be identity theft victim’s name, their medical history, address, phone and driver license number, Social Security number, date of birth, bank name, routing number and checking/savings account number. Customers can purchase the records using the digital currency Bitcoin.

A set of five fullz retails for $40 ($8 per record). Buy 20 fullz and the price drops to $7 per record. Purchase 50 or more fullz, and the per record cost falls to just $6.40 — roughly the price of a value meal at a fast food restaurant. Incidentally, even at $8 per record, that’s cheaper than the price most stolen credit cards fetch on the underground markets.

“Live and Exclusive database of US FULLZ from an insurance company, particularly from NorthWestern region of U.S.,” ImperialRussia’s ad on Evolution enthuses. The pitch continues:

“Most of the fullz come with EXTRA FREEBIES inside as additional policyholders. All of the information is accurate and confirmed. Clients are from an insurance company database with GOOD to EXCELLENT credit score! I, myself was able to apply for credit cards valued from $2,000 – $10,000 with my fullz. Info can be used to apply for loans, credit cards, lines of credit, bank withdrawal, assume identity, account takeover.”

Sure enough, the source who alerted me to this listing had obtained numerous fullz from this seller. All of them contained the personal and financial information on people in the Northwest United States (mostly in Washington state) who’d applied for life insurance through American Income Life, an insurance firm based in Waco, Texas.

American Income Life referred all calls to the company’s parent firm — Torchmark Corp., an insurance holding company in McKinney, Texas. This publication shared with Torchmark the records obtained from Imperial Russia. In response, Michael Majors, vice president of investor relations at Torchmark, said that the FBI and Secret Service were assisting the company in an ongoing investigation, and that Torchmark expected to begin the process of notifying affected consumers this week.

“We’re aware of the matter and we’ve been working with law enforcement on an ongoing investigation,” Majors said, after reviewing the documents shared by KrebsOnSecurity. “It looks like we’re working on the same matter that you’re inquiring about.”

Majors declined to answer additional questions, such as whether Torchmark has uncovered the source of the data breach and stopped the leakage of customer records, or when the company believes the breach began. Interestingly, ImperialRussia’s first post offering this data is dated more than three months ago, on June 15, 2014. Likewise, the insurance application documents shared with Torchmark by this publication also were dated mid-2014.

The financial information in the stolen life insurance applications includes the checking and/or savings account information of the applicant, and is collected so that American Income can pre-authorize payments and automatic monthly debits in the event the policy is approved. In a four-page discussion thread on Imperial Russian’s sales page at Evolution, buyers of this stolen data took turns discussing the quality of the information and its various uses, such as how one can use automated phone systems to verify the available balance of an applicant’s bank account.

Jessica Johnson, a Washington state resident whose records were among those sold by ImperialRussia, said in a phone interview that she received a call from a credit bureau this week after identity thieves tried to open two new lines of credit in her name.

“It’s been a nightmare,” she said. “Yesterday, I had all these phone calls from the credit bureau because someone tried to open two new credit cards in my name. And the only reason they called me was because I already had a credit card with that company and the company thought it was weird, I guess.”

More than 1.8 million people were victims of medical ID theft in 2013, according to a report from the Ponemon Institute, an independent research group. I suspect that many of these folks had their medical records stolen and used to open new lines of credit in their names, or to conduct tax refund fraud with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Placing a fraud alert or freeze on your credit file is a great way to block identity thieves from hijacking your good name. For pointers on how to do that, as well as other tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of ID theft, check out this story.

Tags: American Income Life, evolution market, fbi, fullz, ImperialRussia, medical identity theft, medical records, medical records for sale, Ponemon Institute, secret service, stolen medical records, Tor, Torchmark