The Department of Justice announced the seizure of web3adspanels.org, a domain used to facilitate a sophisticated bank account takeover fraud scheme that has affected victims across the United States. The criminal operation resulted in attempted losses of approximately $28 million and actual losses of $14.6 million from at least 19 identified victims, including two commercial entities in Georgia.
The fraud scheme operated by deploying malicious advertisements through major search engines like Google and Bing that mimicked legitimate bank advertisements. When victims clicked these fraudulent ads, they were redirected to fake banking websites that closely resembled authentic bank portals. Malicious software embedded in these counterfeit sites harvested login credentials as victims attempted to access their accounts, which criminals then used to drain funds from legitimate bank accounts.
The seized domain hosted a backend server containing stolen login credentials from thousands of potential victims and remained actively operational as recently as November 2025. Estonian law enforcement provided crucial international assistance by preserving data from servers hosting the phishing infrastructure. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center has received over 5,100 complaints related to bank account takeover fraud since January 2025, with total reported losses exceeding $262 million nationwide.
This domain seizure represents a significant disruption to the criminal operation's ability to access stolen credentials and continue victimizing financial institutions and their customers. The case demonstrates the growing sophistication of phishing attacks targeting the financial sector and underscores the critical importance of cybersecurity vigilance for lenders and their commercial clients.
Original Article: Source text provided directly (U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, December 22, 2025).