US DOJ Seizes Virtualine Domain for Criminal Hosting

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of the Virtualine domain on Tuesday. The action followed allegations that the service facilitated criminal activities, including child sexual abuse material and money laundering. Visitors to the domain now see a message stating it was seized by the FBI as part of an international operation. The seizure involved cooperation with the Hessen State Police, the National Police Corps of the Netherlands, the U.K. National Crime Agency, OverRIPE, and Lumen Technologies.

Virtualine operated under several other names, including Secury, Massgod, Spamhouse, Lanedo, and Omegatech. The provider advertised services for phishing, carding, email spam, and port scanning on cybercrime forums. Standard plans cost between $19.99 and $179.99 per month, while optimized plans ranged from $21.99 to $379.99 per month. The DoJ stated that Virtualine knowingly hosted Vendor 1, a criminal forum allowing users to post and sell access to explicit images of minors and adults, despite advertising against child content.

Virtualine accepted Bitcoin payments via unhosted addresses labeled 'BTC [NO-AML]' to avoid compliance checks. Funds paid by criminal customers were received by Virtualine and then laundered to conceal the origin. Chainalysis reported that Virtualine's on-chain footprint exposed it to ransomware operators, infostealer infrastructure, Russian-language cybercrime forums, and scam addresses. The operator of Virtualine published an open letter refuting allegations that the service knowingly hosted child sexual abuse material, claiming they ended their relationship with Vendor 1 upon identifying prohibited material.