Police take down two large cybercrime forums, arrest suspects

An international operation has shut down two of the world’s largest cybercrime forums — Cracked and Nulled — which had more than 10 million users and earned over $1 million in criminal profits, Europol said in a statement on Thursday.

Cybercriminals used the sites to trade illegal goods and services, such as stolen data, malware and hacking tools. The forums also offered scripts to automatically scan victims’ systems for security vulnerabilities, making cyberattacks more effective, Europol said.

Notices posted on the seized websites included the logos of multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI as well as police in Spain and Germany.

Nulled and Cracked had been operating since 2015 and 2018, respectively, each with around five million registered user accounts. Police said they were closely linked — both administratively and technically.

Other services associated with the forums were also taken down, including Sellix, a financial processor used by Cracked, and StarkRDP, a hosting service promoted on both platforms and run by the same suspects.

During the operation, which took place earlier this week, police arrested two suspects — a man and a woman — in Valencia, according to Spanish police.  Law enforcement also confiscated over $300,000 in cash, dozens of electronic devices, and cryptocurrency assets during searches of their properties.

The investigation, ongoing since March, has identified eight people allegedly directly involved in operating the platforms, including two German citizens aged 29 and 32, according to the German police.

Cracked also said on Telegram that police had seized its domain. “A sad day indeed for our community,” the channel’s operators said.