German law enforcement has seized over 50 servers that hosted the Manson Market cybercrime marketplace and fake online shops used in phishing operations.
Two main suspects (currently in pretrial detention) believed to be Manson Market's operators have been arrested in Germany and Austria under European arrest warrants on Wednesday in an operation led by the cybercrime departments of the Verden Public Prosecutor's Office (Staatsanwaltschaft Verden) and the Hanover Police Department (Polizeidirektion Hannover).
"The investigation began in the autumn of 2022, following reports of fraudulent phone calls in which scammers impersonated bank employees to extract sensitive information, such as addresses and security answers, from victims," Europol
said today.
"The stolen data was traced back to a specialised online marketplace that operated as a central hub for the trade of illegally obtained information."
In coordinated search raids across Europe with police authorities from Austria, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, and Europol forces, the investigation team seized 50 servers and over 200 terabytes of documents containing evidence linked to the thousands of users and sellers active on the fraud marketplace.
"All transactions, communications, and user information associated with this site are now in the custody of law enforcement," the seizure banner displayed on the marketplace's seized domain (manson-market[.]pw) warns.
"If you have engaged in any illegal activity, you are under investigation. Criminals are neither anonymous nor safe! Justice is coming..."
