[BreachExchange] The US confirms seizing RaidForums website, its owner - arrested

[Matthew Wheeler]

https://cybernews.com/news/the-us-confirms-seizing-raidforums-website-its-owner-arrested/

Unsealed court records show that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) took
over three domains that hosted the RaidForums website.

The US authorities confirmed their involvement in shutting down RaidForums,
the popular marketplace to buy and sell hacked data.

The RaidForums website has been down since early February. According to the
DoJ, the forum hosted hundreds of databases of stolen data containing more
than 10 billion unique records for individuals residing in the United
States and internationally.

Court records show that the US seized three domains that hosted the
marketplace: raidforums.com, Rf.ws, and Raid.lol.

“The takedown of this online market for the resale of hacked or stolen data
disrupts one of the major ways cyber criminals profit from the large-scale
theft of sensitive personal and financial information,” said Assistant
Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s
Criminal Division.

The statement also claims that the website’s founder and chief
administrator, a 21-year-old Diogo Santos Coelho, was arrested in the UK in
late January this year. Coelho is waiting to be extradited to the US.

RaidForums’ owner is charged with conspiracy, access device fraud, and
aggravated identity theft in connection with his role as the chief
administrator of RaidForums.

Coelho is suspected of being the chief administrator of the website from
2015 until his arrest in 2022.

Problems for the website started mounting in early October last year due to
‘an unnamed government reporting forums’ content.’ It was later revealed
that the Brazilian government reported the website.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/pipermail/breachexchange/attachments/20220412/b86f2e06/attachment.html>