
U.S. and Dutch law enforcement agencies have successfully dismantled a network that was involved in business email compromise (BEC) fraud by taking down 39 domains and their associated servers. This operation, named "Operation Heart Blocker," was executed on January 29, 2025.
The online marketplaces, which have been active since at least 2020 and operated under the name HeartSender, were primarily controlled by a group known as Saim Raza. These platforms provided various tools for phishing and other fraudulent activities, which were then exploited by transnational crime organizations to victimize unsuspecting individuals and businesses in the United States, causing losses exceeding $3 million.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the websites functioned as fraud marketplaces offering phishing kits, scam pages, and email extractors. They not only sold these tools but also provided training to users through links to instructional YouTube videos, effectively lowering the barrier for entry into criminal activities for those lacking technical expertise.
The tools distributed via these marketplaces were capable of collecting victim credentials, enabling further fraudulent actions. Dutch police emphasized that the group had a significant user base, which numbered in the thousands before the operation was shut down.
The law enforcement efforts to eradicatethe criminal operations came on the heels of a report by independent security journalist Brian Krebs, which shed light on the ongoing activities of this cybercrime entity, also known as The Manipulaters. They were first identified in May 2015, and recent findings indicated operational security errors that had led to compromises of several systems tied to the group.
Despite lacking the technical sophistication of other cybercrime vendors, the group became notable for being one of the earliest phishing-centric marketplaces to fully integrate their operations across multiple branded sites, widening their reach and facilitating a series of digital frauds.
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