RaidForums, a famous forum for Dark Web hackers, has suffered the wrath of Europol. The European Criminal Police Agency announced that it was behind the closure of the site, thanks to the joint action of the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Sweden, Portugal and Romania. The forum had greatly facilitated the purchase of leaked personal data from its 750,000 members.
Another big name in the Dark Web has just gone down. Just days after German police shut down Hydra Market, the world’s largest virtual black market, Europol announced yet another major take. This time it is RaidForums, a platform formed by 750,000 users who have come to buy databases containing hacked personal data.
As of today, it is therefore no longer possible to visit the forum, which is usually free of charge. If you try to go there, you will be greeted by the now traditional press release indicating the domain name has been seized by the authorities. This is valid for raidforums.com, Rf.ws and Raid.lol URLs. This closure comes after two months of debacle with the administrators.
RaidForums is no more, 750,000 pirates in trouble
Diego Santos Coelho, the 21 young man incidentally creator of RaidForums, was arrested in the United Kingdom on January 31st. For the time being, he remains imprisoned pending his extradition to Portugal, where he is from. His two accomplices are also in the hands of the police. It is therefore a real tour de force for the European authorities, whose agents were in Germany, Sweden and Romania.
Related: Dark Web—Police Arrest 150 Guns, Drug Dealers in Historic Operation
It is also a real blow for cybercriminals. Launched in 2015, RaidForums has greatly contributed to democratizing the sale of personal data. The databases most often contained user names, their passwords or credit card numbers. Europol also specifies that the site administrators are behind several money laundering and information theft operations.
Source : Europol
