FBI Seizes Virtualine Domain in International Operation

The FBI has seized the domain virtualine[.]net, a hosting service accused of selling “bulletproof” hosting to customers who engaged in criminal activity and ignored abuse reports. The U.S.

Department of Justice press release states the seizure was authorised by a court and that Virtualine, also known as Secury, Massgod, Spamhouse, Lanedo and Omegatech, facilitated criminal activity including advertising sexually explicit images of minors, distributing non-consensual intimate images, and international money laundering designed to conceal criminal conduct.

Court records and government statements describe Virtualine as enabling illicit operations by hosting and relocating criminal infrastructure for clients, sometimes in response to law enforcement requests. The FBI’s Washington Field Office led the investigation with support from German, Dutch, and U.K. authorities, including Germany’s Polizei Hessen, the Netherlands’ Politie Midden-Nederland, and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, plus private partners OverRIPE and Lumen.

The government notes that despite claiming to ban child content, Virtualine knowingly hosted a site (Vendor 1) carrying such material and assisting a hack-for-hire service. Records show Virtualine’s marketing of an “additional protection plan” in March 2026 to move a client’s criminal infrastructure to a shell company and reactivate the server after law-enforcement requests, effectively maintaining operational anonymity for wrongdoing.

The seizure is described as not ending the problem, with the new site associated with Vendor 1 already drawing abuse reports, according to the Justice Department.