LONDON–Law enforcement officials across 19 countries are reporting they have shut down an online platform that earned at least $1 million by selling phishing kits to cybercriminals that may have been involved in attacks on tens of thousands of victims.
According to the Metropolitan Police, the criminal platform, called LabHost, was established in 2021 to make it easier for hackers to create fake websites that could then fool people into revealing email addresses, passwords and bank details.
In all, police said 37 suspects have been arrested, and more than 70 locations were searched in the U.K. and across the world between over a four-day period.
“Since (its) creation, LabHost has received just under £1 million ($1,173,000) in payments from criminal users, many of whom Met cybercrime detectives have now been able to identify,” London’s police service said.
It added that 2,000 users had registered with the site and were paying a monthly subscription.
Nearly a Half-Million Records
According to police, LabHost had obtained 480,000 bank card numbers, 64,000 PIN numbers, as well as more than one-million passwords used for websites and other online services, it said.
Police said European Union law enforcement agency Europol coordinated the police action internationally. In a separate statement, it said four people linked to the running of LabHost, including the developer of the service, had been arrested.
At least 40,000 phishing domains, with about 10,000 users worldwide, had been uncovered by the investigation into LabHost, Europol said in a statement.
Just $249 a Month
“With a monthly fee averaging $249, LabHost would offer a range of illicit services which were customizable and could be deployed with a few clicks,” it said. “Depending on the subscription, criminals were provided an escalating scope of targets from financial institutions, postal delivery services and telecommunication services providers, among others.”
According to Europol, among the services offered was a campaign management tool called LabRat that allowed criminals to monitor and control phishing attacks in real time, which was also designed to bypass enhanced security measures such as two-factor authentication.
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