News24 | Global site selling stolen intimate content of 17 000 women worldwide shut in French-US raid

Three websites associated with a platform called NudeLeaksTeens, which sold private sexual content stolen from over 17 000 women worldwide, has been shut down.

Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

A joint French-US operation has shut three websites associated with a platform called NudeLeaksTeens, which sold private sexual content stolen from over 17 000 women worldwide, Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Two brothers, aged 21 and 25, were arrested in France on Tuesday on suspicion of having been the “main administrators” of the platform, prosecutors said.

The platform sold “packs” of stolen intimate content from thousands of women and girls, which were taken from sources including hacked social media accounts, revenge porn or grooming.

More than 17 000 women of all nationalities were affected, the prosecutor’s office said, some of whom were minors.

French investigators also seized digital assets, including Bitcoin worth more than 700 000 euros.

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Users on the platform were encouraged – in exchange for virtual currency – to provide identifying information about each victim, who were listed individually by their real names and categorised by age, location and occupation.

Prosecutors said the operation was part of a joint effort with US law enforcement to “combat child pornography, as well as the distribution and sale of stolen private sexual content involving women.”

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