RaidForums, one of the world’s biggest hacker forums, has been dismantled and its domains seized as a result of a global law enforcement operation called “TOURNIQUET” led by Europol together with law enforcement agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, and Romania.

Active since 2015, RaidForums has been a popular marketplace for cybercriminals to buy and sell data obtained from data breaches, including credit cards, bank account numbers and routing information, and the usernames and associated passwords needed to access online accounts.

According to the authorities, the forum’s administrator and two of his accomplices have also been arrested. The US Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges against RaidForums’ founder and chief administrator, Diogo Santos Coelho who was arrested in the UK on January 31, 2022, at the request of the US authorities and remains in custody pending the resolution of his extradition proceedings.

The DoJ alleges that between January 1, 2015, and on or about January 31, 2022, Coelho allegedly controlled and served as the chief administrator of RaidForums, which he operated with the help of other website administrators. As administrators, Coelho and his co-conspirators allegedly designed and administered the platform’s software and computer infrastructure, established and enforced rules for its users, and created and managed sections of the website dedicated to promoting the buying and selling of contraband, including a subforum titled “Leaks Market” that described itself as “[a] place to buy/sell/trade databases and leaks.”

The indictment alleges that Coelho also personally sold stolen data on the platform, and directly facilitated illicit transactions through a fee-based “Official Middleman” service.