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Darkode forum takedown

July 2015, Criminal hosting and proxies
Led by Federal Bureau of Investigation

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Forum infrastructure was seized and taken offline; a seizure notice replaced the site.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

Officials reported 28 apprehended.
Group accounted for: Partial

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

FBI and international partners across around 20 countries seized the Darkode cybercrime forum, an invite-only English-language marketplace for malware and hacking tools/services, with numerous arrests announced the same day.

Date
July 2015
Target
Darkode, cybercrime forum
Activity
Criminal hosting and proxies
Operational lead
FBI
Partners
USAO-WDPA[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
Forum infrastructure was seized and taken offline; a seizure notice replaced the site.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
Federal criminal process (W.D. Pa.); coordinated international arrest warrants.
Group accounted for
Partial

Infrastructure

1 domain seized.

1
domain seized
Identifier Recorded as Status Notes
darkode[.]com 1 domain Seized, United States Primary forum domain seized and replaced with a law-enforcement notice.[1]

Domains and onion addresses are shown defanged. Where the record gives a count but no identifier, the count is shown in place of one. This list carries only what appears in the cited sources.

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Partial

Roughly two dozen defendants were charged across multiple countries; the broader membership was not fully accounted for.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Darkode forum takedown announcement

    US DOJ / USAO WDPA, July 15, 2015, Source grade S2

    Establishes the international Darkode forum seizure and coordinated arrests.

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.