From Fox 5 Atlanta: The Justice Department seized a web domain and database created to target and defraud Americans through bank account takeover fraud.
DOJ officials said in a Dec. 22 release that the FBI identified 19 victims in the U.S. whose bank accounts were compromised through the false domain, resulting in “attempted losses” of $28 million and actual losses of $14.6 million. The confiscated web domain contained stolen login credentials for thousands of people.
The domain called web3adspanels.org was designed to store and illegally obtain bank login credentials.
Department of Justice officials announced in a Dec. 22 release that a criminal group involved in the use of the web domain distributed fraudulent advertisements through search engines like Google and Bing. The agency noted that these deceptive advertisements emulated search engine postings used by legitimate banking organizations.
In a press release, the Justice Department explained that the alarming scheme was set up “as a backend web panel to store and manipulate illegally harvested bank login credentials.”
According to the affidavit filed in support of the domain seizure, the criminal group perpetrating the bank account takeover fraud delivered fraudulent advertisements through search engines, including Google and Bing. These fraudulent advertisements imitated the sponsored search engine advertisements used by legitimate banking entities. While the fraudulent advertisements appeared to send users to the websites of legitimate banks, victims were in fact redirected to fake bank websites controlled by the criminals. When victims entered their login credentials to access their bank accounts, the criminals harvested those credentials through a malicious software program embedded in the fake website. The criminals then used those bank credentials on the corresponding legitimate bank websites to access victims’ bank accounts and drain their funds.
To date, the FBI has identified at least 19 victims throughout the United States, including two companies in the Northern District of Georgia, whose bank accounts have been compromised through this account takeover scheme, resulting in attempted losses of approximately $28 million dollars and actual losses of approximately $14.6 million dollars. The seized domain hosted a server that contained the stolen login credentials of thousands of victims, including the credentials of the victims mentioned above. Based on the FBI’s investigation, the seized domain continued to host a backend server used in furtherance of the bank account takeover fraud as recently as November 2025.
Since January 2025, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 5,100 complaints reporting bank account takeover fraud, with reported losses exceeding $262 million. The public is encouraged to stay vigilant, including by regularly monitoring financial accounts, using “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” for navigating to login websites and guarding against phishing attempts.
FBI Atlanta and our partners have seized a web domain and stopped a fraud ring responsible for $28 million in unauthorized bank transfers from U.S. victims. Read more about this here: https://t.co/xDuEUGzExY pic.twitter.com/OsASRm3zi7
— FBI Atlanta (@FBIAtlanta) December 22, 2025
A fake web domain that obtained personal information was used to steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting people. Here’s what you need to know. https://t.co/pgtZ7MMQsi
— FOX 5 Atlanta (@FOX5Atlanta) January 6, 2026
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