Intimate content platform: two brothers arrested, 17,000 victims
Two brothers have been arrested in France for administering NudeLeaksTeens, a website selling stolen intimate images of more than 17,000 women. Three domains were shut down during a joint Franco-American operation.
Intimate content sales platform closed following France and United States operation
According to Actu17, two brothers aged 21 and 25 were arrested on Tuesday in northern France, suspected of running NudeLeaksTeens, a platform that commercialised stolen intimate content. The Paris public prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday the closure of three websites — nlthub.pk, nltvids.com and nudeleaksteens.com — following an investigation conducted jointly with American authorities.
The platform offered for sale "packs" of stolen intimate content concerning more than 17,000 women, some of them minors, according to the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau. The images came from several sources: computer hacking of social media accounts, online child exploitation where adults manipulate minors, and revenge pornography — the distribution of intimate images by an ex-partner.
Victims had been listed individually under their real names, indexed by age, place of residence, occupation and a "beauty" rating out of 10. Users of the site received a cryptocurrency reward for providing this personal identifying information. Investigators seized crypto-assets — Bitcoin, Litecoin, USDT and Ethereum — with a total value exceeding 700,000 euros.
The National Cyber Unit of the Gendarmerie is leading the preliminary investigation from the cybercrime-fighting section of the Paris prosecutor's office. The offences being prosecuted include violation of privacy by transmission of sexual images, attack on a data processing system, provision of an online platform facilitating an illicit transaction, possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material, and money laundering of crime or offence. All charges include an aggravating circumstance of organised gang activity.
In the United States, the FBI seized the domains pursuant to a warrant issued by the federal court of the Eastern District of Virginia. This seizure forms part of "Inevitable" and "Torch" operations, targeting the distribution of child sexual abuse material and non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
The prosecutor's office issued an appeal to victims of NudeLeaksTeens, inviting the persons concerned, whether French or foreign, to contact the National Cyber Unit at the following address: [email protected]
Source: Actu17