Cybercrime
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime
Cracked, Nulled and HeartSender All Seized In International Operations
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Operators of a cybercrime forums had a bad day Thursday after European and U.S. law enforcement announced server seizures and arrests.
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German police and its partners announced the closure two platforms, Cracked and Nulled, which collectively had more than 10 million users. Users discussed cybercrime and traded in stolen data, malware and hacking tools.
Over the course of a three day operation that ended Thursday, authorities seized 12 domains used to host the platforms, as well as a financial processor named Sellix which was used by Cracked and a hosting service called StarkRDP run by suspected Cracked and Nulled operators. Spanish arrested two individuals, a man and a woman, in the Mediterranean city of Valencia. U.S. federal authorities identified one of them as Lucas Sohn, 29, an Argentinian national. Sohn faces charges in the United States that could result in 30 years of prison for his role as an alleged Nulled administrator.
The operation also seized 17 servers, as well as 300,000 euros worth of cash and cryptocurrencies. German police said its investigation began in March and identified eight individuals involved in the operation of Cracked or Nulled, including two German nationals residing near Hamburg. If convicted, they could face up to 10 years in prison. Other suspects are located in Greece and Italy.
The U.S. Department of Justice estimated that Cracked generated approximately $4 million in revenue, while Nulled generated $1 million. In its Telegram channel, Cracked operators acknowledged the seizure, calling it “a sad day indeed for our community.”
Dutch and U.S. law enforcement on Thursday separately announced the closure of another cybercrime marketplace called HeartSender that sold phishing tools dubbed “Senders,” “Scampages” and “Cookie Grabbers.”
American law enforcement said the operation resulted in the seizure of 39 domains and their associated servers. Data on seized HeartSender servers contained data belonging to millions of victims spread across the globe. The site is also known as Saim Raza and based in Pakistan.
“Not only did Saim Raza make these tools widely available on the open internet, it also trained end users on how to use the tools against victims by linking to instructional YouTube videos on how to execute schemes using these malicious programs,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.