Two members of a cyber gang ViLE were sentenced this week for breaching a federal law enforcement portal in order to obtain personal information about targets who were then harassed, threatened, and extorted.
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Two members of a cyber gang ViLE were sentenced for breaching a federal law enforcement portal to obtain personal information about targets.
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The crooks used an officer’s stolen credentials to gain access to a federal law enforcement database.
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Information stolen from the portal, such as Social Security numbers, was used to extort victims by threatening to leak sensitive data unless they paid up.
“The defendants impersonated law enforcement, illegally accessed government databases, and even faked life-threatening situations to bypass criminal procedures through which they could obtain sensitive personal information,” said Michael Alfonso, an Acting Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations.
“They threatened innocent victims' livelihoods and were found to have joked about their deceptive, exploitative, and calculated scheme in messages with each other.”
Sagar Steven Singh and his pal Nicholas Ceraolo already pleaded guilty to stealing personal data belonging to multiple individuals whom they had blackmailed. Now, court documents reveal more information.
They say that on May 7th, 2022, the crooks used an officer’s stolen credentials to gain access to a federal law enforcement database. The latter was used to share intel, including “nonpublic records of narcotics and currency seizures,” with state and local cops.
Information stolen from the portal, such as Social Security numbers, was used to extort victims by threatening to leak sensitive data unless they paid up.
ViLE then threatened to dox victims by posting that information on a public website administered by a ViLE member, said the Department of Justice. Victims could pay to have their information removed from or kept off the website.
In one blackmail attempt, Singh made one victim hand over control of their Instagram accounts after messaging their security number, driver's license number, home address, and other personal details.
“You’re gonna comply to me [sic] if you don't want anything negative to happen to your parents,” he said.
Both men knew perfectly well what serious crimes they were committing. In one intercepted message, Ceraolo wrote: “We’re all gonna get raided one of these days, I swear.” Singh also wrote to a contact: “The portal shit I accessed, I was not supposed to be there not one bit.”
Singh was sentenced to 27 months for aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Ceraolo received a 25-month sentence for the same charges.
Doxxing is what ViLE specializes in. To collect sensitive data on their targets, the gang uses methods such as tricking customer service employees, bribing corporate insiders, submitting fraudulent legal requests to social media companies, or searching private and public online databases.
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