Finance
Police take down massive fraud website LabHost
Illustration of a cybercriminal using a computer.
Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao | Moment | Getty Images
A huge fraud website used by thousands of criminals to trick people into handing over personal information such as email addresses, passwords, and bank details, has been infiltrated by international police.
Britain’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Thursday that the website, called LabHost, was used by 2,000 criminals to steal users’ personal details.
Police have so far identified just under 70,000 individual U.K. victims who entered their details into one of LabHost’s websites. A total of 37 suspects have been arrested so far, according to the Metropolitan Police.
Police have also disrupted LabHost’s websites and replaced the information on its pages with a message stating that law enforcement has seized the services.
LabHost obtained 480,000 credit card numbers, 64,000 PIN codes, as well as more than 1 million passwords used for websites and other online services, the Metropolitan Police said.
The Metropolitan Police said that up to 25,000 victims in the U.K. have been contacted by police to notify them that their data has been compromised.
Who are LabHost?
Police say that LabHost was set up in 2021 by a criminal cyber network which sought to scam victims out of key personally identifiable information, such as bank details and passwords, by creating fake websites.
Criminals were able to use it to exploit victims through existing sites, or create new websites mimicking those of trusted brands including banks, health care providers, and postal services.
“Online fraudsters think they can act with impunity,” Dame Lynne Owens, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said in a statement Thursday.
“They believe they can hide behind digital identities and platforms such as LabHost and have absolute confidence these sites are impenetrable by policing.”
Owens added that the operation showed “how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together with one another and private sector partners to dismantle international fraud networks at source.”
Private companies including blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, Intel 471, Microsoft, The Shadowserver Foundation, and Trend Micro worked with police to identify and bring down LabHost.
The investigation started in June 2022 after police received intelligence about LabHost’s activities from the Cyber Defence Alliance, an intelligence sharing alliance between banks and law enforcement agencies.
The Met’s Cyber Crime Unit then joined forces with the National Crime Agency, City of London Police, Europol, regional U.K. authorities, as well as other international police forces to take action.
Money manager John Davi is positioning for challenges tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
Davi said he worries the new administration’s policies could be “very inflationary,” so he thinks it is important to choose investments carefully.
“Small-cap industrials make more sense than large-cap industrials,” the Astoria Portfolio Advisors CEO told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Davi, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer, expects the red sweep will help push a pro-growth, pro-domestic policy agenda forward that will benefit small caps.
It appears Wall Street agrees so far. Since the presidential election, the Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap stocks, is up around 4% as of Friday’s close.
Davi, whose firm has $1.9 billion in assets under management, also likes staying domestic despite the tariff risks.
“We’re overweight the U.S. I think that’s the right playbook in the next few years until the midterms,” added Davi. “We have two years of where he [Trump] can control a lot of the narrative.”
But Davi plans to stay away from fixed income due to challenges tied to the growing budget deficit.
“Be careful if you own bonds for sure,” said Davi.
Since the election, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield is up 3% as of Friday’s close.
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