Authorities in the United States and the Netherlands have teamed up to take down HeartSender, a cybercriminal gang that specializes in selling phishing tools. In an operation called Heart Blocker, law enforcement seized 39 domains and computer servers used by the criminals.
This is the culmination of a lengthy investigation that began in late 2022 by the Dutch police. It is not yet known whether Operation Heart Blocker resulted in any arrests or charges.
$3 million in losses
Also known as Saim Raza and Manipulators Team, the HeartSender gang had been selling hacking tools on criminal platforms for about a decade. They sold phishing kits, viruses, and spam services, among other things. According to investigators, the HeartSender hackers are based in Pakistan.
HeartSender’s activities have generated more than $3 million in losses in the United States. Millions of people around the world have been victims of the tools the gang sold to other hackers. The group’s customers include “transnational organized crime groups and other cybercriminals,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the majority of cases, the gangs purchased HeartSender’s tools to facilitate the hacking of business email accounts. The cybercriminals were primarily interested in manipulating businesses “into making payments to fraudulent accounts.” In addition, HeartSender kits were used extensively to steal credentials.
A teaching gang
The group did not just "spread these tools on the Internet". It also taught its customers how to use them. The police forces have in fact unearthed "YouTube tutorials explaining how to use these programs to carry out scams". With these explanatory videos, accessible to all on the Google platform, budding hackers were able to learn how to orchestrate effective phishing attacks.
The Dutch police have put online a tool allowing Internet users to check if their personal information has been compromised by HeartSender. In addition to phishing tools, the gang also sold directories of compromised data.
To find out for sure, simply enter your email address in the space provided on this website. After a few minutes, the site will indicate whether your address is listed in the data sets seized by law enforcement. If this is the case, the police will send you recommendations by email on how to protect yourself. If this does not apply to you, you will not receive any emails from the Dutch police.
This international police operation comes a few days after the seizure of several key platforms used by cybercriminals, including the essential Cracked.io and Nulled.to. These two hubs of online crime had over ten million users combined. It’s been a tough time for the hacking community.
Source: Justice.gov
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