The Frenchman, Sébastien Raoult, wanted internationally in a case related to computer fraud, hacking and aggravated theft through information systems, was arrested in Morocco at Rabat-Salé airport.
Only 21 years old, this former computer science student at the school ” Epitechfrom Nancy, France, is now in pre-trial detention at Tifelt 2 prison, according to a well-informed source who confided inMoroccoLatestNews. The FBI suspects him of belonging to a group of hackers who have recently made headlines.
Arrested at Rabat-Salé airport, Sébastien Raoult was preparing to leave Morocco to go to Belgium, added the same source who specified that his arrest took place within the framework of a supervised security operation on the field by the National Judicial Police Brigade (BNPJ) in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Raoult is suspected of being linked to a criminal network active in cybercrime called “Shiny Hunters”, whose members are presented as “prolific cybercriminalswhich focus on hacking the information systems of several companies in the United States of America, and seizing millions of customer documents, including personal, banking and financial data as well as secret account numbers, which were offered for sale on web platforms and criminal accounts.
These criminal operations have earned hackers millions of dollars by blackmailing and coercing victims and clients in exchange for keeping their personal and confidential data private.
The number of companies that have been infiltrated and hacked exceeds sixty. According to US sources, Western Washington County authorities have charged the aforementioned French citizen with nine major counts related to conspiracy, information fraud, hacking, extortion, identity theft and personal data.
The Shiny Hunters group has been in the news for years with its activity within what is commonly referred to as “dark web“, and became known in May 2020 when he offered for sale the data of 91 million Internet users.
Since then, the network has been blackmailing victims whose data has been breached, especially those based in the United States, relying on a strategy based on the threat of exposing the data unless the victim pays a ransom.
In August 2021, the group auctioned off the hacked data at a cybercrime forum.
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