Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

krebsonsecurity.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 197 posts

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#61

Post by FerociousTimes »

jacquesm wrote: post #50
PaywallBuster wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for background: he's only 21, and he started the website at 14

Indeed. But that doesn't really matter in the eyes of the law, he's no longer a minor. If he had been a bit more clever he would have stopped doing any of that the day he turned 18.

It is not about law enforcement either. It's about debating whether he's the sharpest tool in the shed or not. I contend that running such a criminal enterprise is no easy feat for a teenager despite the rookie mistakes he committed.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#62

Post by [deleted] »

RajT88 wrote: post #34
jacquesm wrote: post #2

"Coelho landed on the radar of U.S. authorities in June 2018, when he tried to enter the United States at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The government obtained a warrant to search the electronic devices Coelho had in his luggage and found text messages, files and emails showing he was the RaidForums administrator Omnipotent." Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like th…

I am always surprised at how often people who know each other randomly run into each other in an airport. I mean, what are the odds? I only had it happen once, but it was nuts. A guy from my previous company I ran into randomly in Frankfurt while I was on my way to India. He lives in California, I live in Chicago. We were on the same flight to Bangalore . Our trips had nothing to do with each other, other than we bot…

[deleted]

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#63

Post by Teandw »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
vmception wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like this and then to go holidaying in the USA with incriminating stuff on your person... The US could have gone after him any time it wanted in nearly any country, including his home in Portugal. They actually arrested him in the UK. This issue with the warrant when he entered was a procedural thing that appeared out of convenience. They could have cooperat…

I don't care about the US perspective, I care about his perspective, and for the life of me I can't imagine someone so incredibly convinced of their own ability to hide their tracks that they'd be involved in a multi-year effort like that and think it's smart to go visit the United States. It's not like that would be the first time someone got arrested on entry. If it can happen to the CEO of a large multinational it…

He was running one of the most 'successful' illegal forums for what 7 years? When you get away with something for so long, especially in an 'industry' where you know every law enforcement in the world is after you, I can see why you would easily think you're invincible and never getting caught.

He was incredibly convinced of his own ability to hide his tracks because technically up to that point, his ability to hide his tracks was good. A self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#64

Post by Teandw »

rosndo wrote: post #19
jacquesm wrote: post #2

"Coelho landed on the radar of U.S. authorities in June 2018, when he tried to enter the United States at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The government obtained a warrant to search the electronic devices Coelho had in his luggage and found text messages, files and emails showing he was the RaidForums administrator Omnipotent." Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like th…

This guy was under the impression that what he was doing wasn’t illegal. IANAL but the fact that he is being charged with access device fraud might suggest that DOJ had to engage in some mental gymnastics in order to charge this. E: I’ll take that back since I actually read the indictment now, besides the usual raidforums fare he was also selling credit card data which would very much tend to attract access device fr…

He knew what he was doing was illegal. You don't go through all the steps he did to stop authorities taking down the website without knowing what you're doing is illegal.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#65

Post by paxys »

layer8 wrote: post #38
morsch wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a variation of the birthday paradox.

Not exactly, because the scenario isn’t “any two people on the plane” but “me and another person on the plane”.

It is still not another specific person, but anyone you know, which is a pretty large set.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#66

Post by Teandw »

lettergram wrote: post #52

> an extremely popular English-language cybercrime forum that sold access to more than 10 billion consumer records stolen in some of the world’s largest data breaches since 2015. The DOJ also charged the alleged administrator of RaidForums — 21-year-old Diogo Santos Coelho, of Portugal — with six criminal counts, including conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. Some thing doesn’t add up

What doesn't add up?

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#67

Post by brk »

RajT88 wrote: post #34
jacquesm wrote: post #2

"Coelho landed on the radar of U.S. authorities in June 2018, when he tried to enter the United States at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The government obtained a warrant to search the electronic devices Coelho had in his luggage and found text messages, files and emails showing he was the RaidForums administrator Omnipotent." Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like th…

I am always surprised at how often people who know each other randomly run into each other in an airport. I mean, what are the odds? I only had it happen once, but it was nuts. A guy from my previous company I ran into randomly in Frankfurt while I was on my way to India. He lives in California, I live in Chicago. We were on the same flight to Bangalore . Our trips had nothing to do with each other, other than we bot…

I ran into someone who had interviewed at my company, we were bot on an inter-airport shuttle in I think Berlin. He was based in CA, I was in MA, and we weren't really in the same industry (his knowledge base was tangent to what we did, thus the interview), and not traveling for the same event.

Have had a handful of similar scenarios, seeing someone I know when we are in a far-away random place. I think it had to do a lot with I was traveling frequently at the time (200K miles/year), to all kinds of random places.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#68

Post by baby »

meowface wrote: post #3
jacquesm wrote: post #2

"Coelho landed on the radar of U.S. authorities in June 2018, when he tried to enter the United States at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The government obtained a warrant to search the electronic devices Coelho had in his luggage and found text messages, files and emails showing he was the RaidForums administrator Omnipotent." Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like th…

Not to mention the following paragraph: >“In an attempt to retrieve his items, Coelho called the lead FBI case agent on or around August 2, 2018, and used the email address unrivalled@pm.me to email the agent,” the government’s affidavit states. Investigators found this same address was used to register rf.ws and raid.lol, which Omnipotent announced on the forum would serve as alternative domain names for RaidForums…

dude, opsec is really really hard, the slightest mistake and it's over.

Re: RaidForums gets raided, alleged admin arrested

#70

Post by baby »

RajT88 wrote: post #34
jacquesm wrote: post #2

"Coelho landed on the radar of U.S. authorities in June 2018, when he tried to enter the United States at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The government obtained a warrant to search the electronic devices Coelho had in his luggage and found text messages, files and emails showing he was the RaidForums administrator Omnipotent." Not really the sharpest knife in the drawer, to do things like th…

I am always surprised at how often people who know each other randomly run into each other in an airport. I mean, what are the odds? I only had it happen once, but it was nuts. A guy from my previous company I ran into randomly in Frankfurt while I was on my way to India. He lives in California, I live in Chicago. We were on the same flight to Bangalore . Our trips had nothing to do with each other, other than we bot…

I actually ran many times into people that I know, in different parts of the world. The weirdest one was running into some French dude I had met skiing in France on a boat in Thailand. It's a small world.
Post reply on HN