DOJ and Europol take down SocksEscort network tied to crypto fraud

Law enforcement agencies seized 34 domains, 23 servers and froze $3.5 million in crypto linked to SocksEscort, a proxy service that hijacked 369,000 devices.

US and European authorities said Thursday they had disrupted SocksEscort, a malicious proxy service used by cybercriminals to hide their identities while carrying out fraud, including cryptocurrency account takeovers.

The DOJ said the service compromised at least 369,000 routers and other internet-connected devices in 163 countries, giving cybercriminals control over proxies that hid their true IP addresses.

The platform reportedly enabled crimes, including bank fraud and cryptocurrency account takeovers, since 2020. In one case cited by prosecutors, a victim in New York lost roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency.

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