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Operation Lightning Shuts Down Major Fraud Network

3/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

Operation Lightning dismantled SocksEscort, a criminal proxy service involved in large-scale fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Since 2020, SocksEscort compromised approximately 369,000 IP addresses across 163 countries.
The operation included law enforcement from eight countries, leading to the seizure of 34 domains, 23 servers, and the freezing of $3.5 million in cryptocurrency.
Victims, including individuals and businesses in the U.S., suffered millions in losses due to the malware AVRecon, which exploited router vulnerabilities.

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Story summary

Operation Lightning dismantled SocksEscort, a criminal proxy service involved in large-scale fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Since 2020, SocksEscort compromised approximately 369,000 IP addresses across 163 countries.
The operation included law enforcement from eight countries, leading to the seizure of 34 domains, 23 servers, and the freezing of $3.5 million in cryptocurrency.
Victims, including individuals and businesses in the U.S., suffered millions in losses due to the malware AVRecon, which exploited router vulnerabilities.