RaidForums, one of the largest hacker forums in the world, was shut down by joint law enforcement authorities from the United States and Europe. This forum is a place to buy and sell stolen data from around the world.
Before closing, RaidForums was known to have more than 530,000 members. The forum also has hundreds of databases containing more than 10 billion unique individual data for sale.
"Closing online marketplaces for the resale of hacked or stolen data undermines one of the main ways cybercriminals profit from the massive theft of sensitive personal and financial information," said assistant attorney general Kenneth A. Polite Jr., in a statement. Vice, Wednesday (13/4/2022).
The operation to shut down RaidForums was the result of the collaboration of several international authorities including the US Department of Justice, Europol, the National Crime Agency, and law enforcement from Sweden and Romania. Three domains belonging to RaidForums were also confiscated, namely 'raidforums.com', 'Rf.ws', and 'Raid.lol'.
RaidForums has been actively operating since 2015. Before becoming a favorite place for hackers to buy and sell data, this site was used to plan online harassment actions, including swatting and raiding.
In recent years, it has grown in popularity and is being used by ransomware groups and extortionists to leak corporate data for ransom. The types of personal data traded on RaidForums include personal and financial information such as account numbers, credit card numbers, login information, and others.
To make a profit, RaidForums sells several levels of membership and sells credits that allow members to access secret areas or stolen data stored on the forum.
The US Department of Justice also indicted RaidForums admin and founder Diogo Santos Coelho aka Omnipotent. The Portuguese man was detained in England on January 31 and is awaiting his extradition to the US.
Coelho, who is only 21 years old, has been an admin of RaidForums since 2015 and often intervenes directly to sell stolen data. He was charged with conspiracy, device access fraud, and severe identity theft.
Two of Coelho's colleagues have also been detained. One was a 21-year-old Briton who was detained by the NCA in March but later released. While this individual was in custody, police confiscated £5,000 in cash, thousands of dollars in cash and froze over USD 500,000 worth of crypto assets.