The United States in collaboration with its law enforcement partners in Europe seized RaidForums, the world's largest and most popular marketplace for cybercriminals to buy and sell stolen databases.

According to the unsealed court records. the United States obtained judicial authorization to seize three domains hosting the RaidForums website. These domains included raidforums.com, Rf.ws, and Raid.lol.

RaidForums members will no longer be able to use the platform to buy and sell stolen databases from businesses, universities, and government agencies in the U.S. and other countries. These hacked databases contain bank routing and account numbers, credit card information, login credentials, and social security numbers.

Since its establishment in 2015, RaidForums served as a venue for its members to organize and support online harassment by "raiding" or "swatting."

Raiding is the posting and sending of enormous contact to a victim's online communications medium. Swatting is the practice of making false reports that require an immediate and significant armed law enforcement response from public safety agencies.

In a statement, Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polites, Jr. said, "The takedown of this online market for the resale of hacked or stolen data disrupts one of the major ways cybercriminals profit from the large-scale theft of sensitive personal and financial information."

On the other hand, Edvardas Šileris, the head of Europol's European Cybercrime Center commented, "Disruption has always been a key technique in operating against threat actors online, so targeting forums that host huge amounts of stolen data keeps criminals on their toes. Europol will continue working with its international partners to make cybercrime harder – and riskier –to commit. "

Criminal charges were filed against RaidForums founder and chief administrator

The United States government filed criminal charges against Diogo Santos Coelho of Portugal. Coelho is the founder and chief administrator of the website. Law enforcement authorities arrested him in the United Kingdom on January 31.

The U.S. requested the U.K. government to extradite the defendant to face the criminal charges against him. Coelho remains in custody pending the resolution of his extradition proceedings.

Coelho and his co-conspirators allegedly built and administered RaidForums' software and computer infrastructure. They allegedly created and enforced rules for its users and managed a section of the platform dedicated to promoting the buying and selling of illegal products and services such as hacked databases.

Additionally, the defendant alleged personally sold stolen data on the platform. He directly allowed illegal transactions by operating a fee-based “Official Middleman” service on the website.

The criminal charges against Coelho include conspiracy, access device fraud, and aggravated identify theft in connection with his role as the chief administrator of RaidForums.

FBI Washington Field OfficeAssistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono said, “The seizure of the RaidForums website – which facilitated the sale of stolen data from millions of people throughout the world – and the charges against the marketplace's administrator are a testament to the strength of the FBI's international partnerships."

D'Antuono added, “Cybercrime transcends borders, which is why the FBI is committed to working with our partners to bring cybercriminals to justice – no matter where in the world they live or behind what device they try to hide.”

Have a story you want USA Herald to cover? Submit a tip here and if we think it’s newsworthy, we’ll follow up on it.

Want to contribute a story? We also accept article submissions – check out our writer’s guidelines here.