Operation Lightning takes down SocksEscort proxy network blamed for tens of millions in fraud

[littlemissmartypants]

International cops stuck down 23 servers in 7 countries
Thu 12 Mar 2026 // 16:23 UTC
...
"SocksEscort is responsible for tens of millions of dollars in losses due to activity such as ransomware, ad fraud, account takeovers, identity theft, business email compromises, romance scams, and password spraying, among many others," FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jason Bilnoski told The Register in an exclusive interview.

On Wednesday, the FBI and law enforcement agencies from Austria, France, and the Netherlands seized 34 domains and 23 servers across seven countries as part of Operation Lightning. The US also froze about $3.5 million in cryptocurrency linked to SocksEscort. Private-sector organizations - Lumen's Black Lotus Labs and the Shadowserver Foundation - participated in the takedown.

"The servers that we seized through our law enforcement operation will most definitely lead us to additional evidence that will allow us to pursue further criminal activity," Bilnoski said, adding that the FBI and friends continue to investigate downstream criminals who used SocksEscort's proxy network. "We know the customer base of SocksEscort had approximately 124,000 users."

These types of proxy services hack residential routers and small business devices, and then sell access to the compromised machines for large-scale fraud and digital crimes.
...
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/12/socksescort_fraud_proxy_taken_down_fbi/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

[rampartd]

1. these people may be among the most predatory of humans

and probably worked harder for that pardon than most of trump's pals.

[multigraincracker]

2. Even if they just get a few, good job.