Stolen intimate content platform shut down: 17,000 victims identified
French and American justice authorities have shut down NudeLeaksTeens, a site selling intimate images stolen from over 17,000 women, including minors. Two brothers have been arrested in northern France.
Judicial operation against intimate image trafficking
According to TF1 Info, a joint operation by France and the United States enabled the closure of NudeLeaksTeens, a platform offering the online sale of stolen intimate content. The Paris prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday, 7 October the arrest of two brothers, aged 21 and 25, suspected of being the "presumed administrators". They were apprehended on Tuesday in northern France.
The platform targeted a considerable number of victims. More than 17,000 women from around the world had their intimate images stolen and offered for sale on the site, among whom were minors. The Paris prosecutor's office clarifies that the two men are "self-taught" individuals who "managed to seize the opportunities offered by technologies to misuse them".
How the site operated and sources of content
The site operated across three different internet domains and offered for sale "packs" of stolen intimate content. These images came from various sources: computer hacking of social media accounts, "grooming" – traps set online by adults for minors – and "revenge porn", non-consensual dissemination of intimate images in revenge.
Users of the site were encouraged, in exchange for rewards in virtual currency, to provide identifying information about each victim. These were catalogued individually under their real names, indexed by age, place of residence, profession and "beauty" rating on a scale of 10, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Seizures and charges
Investigators seized approximately 700,000 euros in virtual currency from the two brothers, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, USDT and Ethereum. The United States Department of Justice clarified that the platform offered for sale different "albums" or "collections" often containing personal information to identify the victims, partially or completely nude images, as well as images of sexual acts. Some victims were able to be identified and investigators confirmed they were minors at the time the images were taken.
The French investigation, directed by the cybercrime division of the Paris prosecutor's office and entrusted to the national gendarmerie's cyber unit, is continuing notably on the following offences: possession and organised dissemination of images of a minor with pornographic character, money laundering, provision of an online platform for illicit purposes and violation of privacy.
Contact for victims
Persons who are victims of non-consensual dissemination of intimate content on the NudeLeaksTeens platform, whether French or foreign, are invited to contact the National Cyber Unit at the address [email protected].
Source: TF1 Info