Slovakian Admin of Dark Web Kingdom Market Jailed for 16 Years in US

A Slovakian administrator tied to the dark web Kingdom Market received a 16 year US prison sentence for drug trafficking and cybercrime activity...

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

The UK designated Xinbi Guarantee as an enabler of crypto scammers and human trafficking weeks ago. Telegram is still hosting it in plain sight...

Scam compounds hiring “AI models” to seal the deal in deepfake video calls

Scam compounds in Southeast Asia have already become modern slave farms, trapping victims and forcing many of them to become scammers for them. Now they've added another type of worker to the mix: so-called AI models. These professional scammers conduct video calls with their targets, charming th...

‘Narco-Submarine’ Carrying 4 Tons of Cocaine Captured by Mexico's Navy

Following increased surveillance and patrols of routes used by transnational drug-trafficking networks, Mexican authorities have seized approximately 10 tons of cocaine in the past week alone...

Crypto-Funded Human Trafficking Is Exploding

The use of cryptocurrency in sales of human beings for prostitution and scam compounds nearly doubled in 2025, according to a conservative estimate. Many of the deals are happening in plain sight...

Researchers Uncover Service Providers Fueling Industrial-Scale Pig Butchering Fraud

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on two service providers that supply online criminal networks with the necessary tools and infrastructure to fuel the pig butchering-as-a-service PBaaS economy. At least since 2016, Chinese-speaking criminal groups have erected industrial-scale scam cente...

Europol Arrests 34 Black Axe Members in Spain Over €5.9M Fraud and Organized Crime

Europol on Friday announced the arrest of 34 individuals in Spain who are alleged to be part of an international criminal organization called Black Axe. As part of an operation conducted by the Spanish National Police, in coordination with the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and Europol, 28...

INTERPOL Arrests 1,209 Cybercriminals Across 18 African Nations in Global Crackdown

INTERPOL on Friday announced that authorities from 18 countries across Africa have arrested 1,209 cybercriminals who targeted 88,000 victims. "The crackdown recovered $97.4 million and dismantled 11,432 malicious infrastructures, underscoring the global reach of cybercrime and the urgent need for...

US Government Begins $200M Payouts to Backpage Trafficking Victims

The US DOJ has announced the largest-ever compensation process for human trafficking victims of Backpage. Learn about the $200M fund, who is eligible, and the steps to file a petition before the February 2, 2026, deadline. This comes years after the site's seizure, as previously reported by...

A week in security (June 9 – June 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Been scammed online? Here’s what to do How and where to report an online scam Google bug allowed phone number of almost any user to be discovered 44% of people encounter a mobile scam every single day, Malwarebytes finds GirlsDoPorn owner faces life in jail after...

GirlsDoPorn owner faces life in jail after pleading guilty to sex trafficking

Michael James Pratt, the owner of pornographic websites GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys, has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in a US court. Pratt ran the websites, which lured and coerced young women into filming pornographic videos, from 2013 to 2019. Pratt and his accomplices lured women from...

MAL-2025-2424 Malicious code in trafficking (npm)

--- -= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=- Source: ghsa-malware 2a67e1f7fce40440ee6ea678e0aa3087e45aedf5f5e6a198c1735c01bd8bea88 Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be...

US Funding Cuts Are Helping Criminals Get Away With Child Abuse and Human Trafficking

Services supporting victims of online child exploitation and trafficking around the world have faced USAID and State Department cuts—and children are suffering as a result, sources tell WIRED...

The Collapse of USAID Is Already Fueling Human Trafficking and Slavery at Scammer Compounds

The dismantling of USAID by Elon Musk's DOGE and a State Department funding freeze have severely disrupted efforts to help people escape forced labor camps run by criminal scammers...

Who’s Behind the Seized Forums ‘Cracked’ & ‘Nulled’?

The FBI joined authorities across Europe last week in seizing domain names for Cracked and Nulled , English-language cybercrime forums with millions of users that trafficked in stolen data, hacking tools and malware. An investigation into the history of these communities shows their apparent...

President Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht After 11 Years in Prison

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday granted a "full and unconditional pardon" to Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the infamous Silk Road drug marketplace, after spending more than 11 years behind bars. "I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the...

Encrypted messaging service intercepted, 2.3 million messages read by law enforcement

European law enforcement agencies have taken down yet another encrypted messaging service mainly used by criminals. The Matrix encrypted messaging service was an invite-only service which was also marketed under the names Mactrix, Totalsec, X-quantum, or Q-safe. Dutch and French authorities start...

Europol Dismantles Criminal Messaging Service MATRIX in Major Global Takedown

Europol on Tuesday announced the takedown of an invite-only encrypted messaging service called MATRIX that's created by criminals for criminal purposes. The joint operation, conducted by French and Dutch authorities under the moniker Passionflower, comes in the aftermath of an investigation that...

German Police Disrupt DDoS-for-Hire Platform dstat[.]cc; Suspects Arrested

German law enforcement authorities have announced the disruption of a criminal service called dstat.cc that made it possible for other threat actors to easily mount distributed denial-of-service DDoS attacks. "The platform made such DDoS attacks accessible to a wide range of users, even those...

Telegram Agrees to Share User Data With Authorities for Criminal Investigations

In a major policy reversal, the popular messaging app Telegram has announced it will give users' IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities in response to valid legal requests in an attempt to rein in criminal activity on the platform. "We've made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbe...