According to media reports, US federal officials arrested the alleged operator of the data thief forum Breachforums, nicknamed “Pompompurin”, on Wednesday. The charge in one case is conspiracy to device access fraud.
The underground forum, which Pompompurin claims to own and administer, has hosted duplicate databases at around 1,000 companies and websites, Bloomberg said in a statement. The databases often contained sensitive data such as names, email addresses and passwords. Cyber criminals offer the databases that can be used for fraud in the forum for sale.
Arrest: Pompompurin confesses
The senior FBI official on the operation said the arrestee admitted using the nickname Pompompurin and being the owner and operator of the Breachforums platform. He is now free after paying bail. So far, neither he nor the lawyer representing him have wanted to comment on the allegations.
As Bloomberg further reports, the suspect has been under scrutiny by cybersecurity investigators for more than a year. According to several people familiar with the situation, he is considered a significant player in the cybercrime ecosystem.
The Breachforum is the successor to the Raidforum. Its operators were arrested about a year ago in a concerted Europol action, charged by the FBI and the forum shut down with the confiscation of servers and Internet domains. Meanwhile, the breach forum is still accessible.
Pompompurin was released on $300,000 unsecured bail provided by his parents, Bloomberg said. The defendant must refrain from any contact with co-defendants, co-conspirators and witnesses in the case. He is scheduled to appear in court in Alexandria on March 24. Details of the charges filed there have not yet been released.
(dmk)
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