FBI Takes Down Domain of Virtualine, a Hosting Provider Allegedly Built for Criminals

The US Department of Justice announced the seizure of a domain linked to Virtualine, a so-called bulletproof hosting provider. These providers rent out servers and promise to ignore complaints and abuse reports. The DoJ said the service was used to commit and facilitate prolific criminal activity, including the advertisement of sexually explicit images of minors, the intentional disclosure of nonconsensual intimate images, and international money laundering. Visitors to the site now see a notice that the FBI has seized it as part of a coordinated operation. Partners named include the Hessen State Police, the National Police Corps of the Netherlands, the UK National Crime Agency, OverRIPE and Lumen Technologies.

Court documents say Virtualine also operated under names including Secury, Massgod, Spamhouse, Lanedo and Omegatech. It allegedly advertised on cybercrime forums that its servers could be used for phishing, carding, email spam and port scanning. In June 2025, it is alleged to have boasted that it ignored more abuse than "your last three therapists." This March, it reportedly began selling an "additional protection plan" that promised to move customers' criminal infrastructure to an unaffiliated shell company when law enforcement made official requests.

Archived snapshots show standard plans priced from $19.99 to $179.99 per month, with optimised plans from $21.99 to $379.99. The DoJ also said Virtualine knowingly hosted a criminal forum, identified as Vendor 1, despite claiming to ban child content. The forum allows users to post and sell explicit images and videos of minors and adults.