The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) have confiscate coronaprevention.org, alleging its owner tried to promote the area for bitcoin after posting about it in a "hacker's forum."
Announced late Friday, the unidentified owner of the positioning tried to promote the area to an operative with the Department of Homeland Security's Criminal Investigations unit, who mentioned they required to make use of the positioning to promote pretend COVID-19 examination kits, a plan the owner accordingly mentioned was "genius."
According to a warrant connected to the press launch, the owner of coronaprevention.org, far-famed as "Subject A," listed the area on the market on a discussion board "far-famed to cente content related to, and colonised by users interested in, hacking and highjacking online accounts" a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a nationwide emergency because of the virus.
The operative reached out, and Subject A allegedly mentioned they have been charging $500 payable in bitcoin for the area (in line with the warrant, such domains are often closer to $20). The agent finally despatched a partial cost to an covert bitcoin tackle.
The information comes on the heels of the DOJ's announcement that it had "disrupted" a whole bunch of domains that have been acquiring used to shill scams associated to COVID-19.
A listing of the domains confiscate was not obtainable, and it's unclear whether or not Friday's seizure was associated. However, earlier this week a DOJ voice instructed CoinDesk, "The department is aware of the according increase in COVID-19-related fraud involving various virtual defrayal platforms and appreciates the active assistance of many in the cryptocurrency community to thwart those schemes."
The voice didn't reply to a observe up query about which entities it was working with.
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