RaidForums began in 2015 as a platform for Twitch raiders.4
The domain and its contents were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on April 12, 2022, after a month of downtime, in collaboration with the United States Secret Service, the United States Department of Justice, and a variety of other national and international law enforcement agencies.5
The website was allegedly founded in 2015 by a then 14-year-old Portuguese national, Diogo Santos Coelho, under the screen name "Omnipotent", who was arrested on January 31, 2022, in the United Kingdom.6 His arrest occurred pending several years of investigation after several of his devices were searched under warrant at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in June 2018, suggesting he was the owner and primary administrator "Omnipotent". According to hackread.com, an administrator under the screen name "Jaw" & "souls" announced the seizure officially on the forum's public Telegram channel, and redirected subscribers of the channel to RaidForums' backup domain rf.to 7
At the time of its closure in 2022, the forum had over 530,000 registered users and was one of the most prolific and easily accessible clearnet illicit hacking forums.8
Krebs, Brian (April 12, 2022). "RaidForums Gets Raided, Alleged Admin Arrested". Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022. /wiki/Brian_Krebs ↩
"Hacking forum Raidforums.com allegedly seized by authorities". February 25, 2022. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022. https://www.hackread.com/hacking-forum-raidforums-com-seized-by-authorities/ ↩
Lyngaas, Sean (April 12, 2022). "FBI and international partners seize control of popular hacking forum". CNN. Archived from the original on April 19, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/12/politics/raidforums-seizure/index.html ↩
"What It's Like to Run a Hacking Forum: A Conversation With RaidForums Owner Omnipotent". The Record by Recorded Future. January 13, 2021. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved June 12, 2022. https://therecord.media/what-its-like-to-run-a-hacking-forum-a-conversation-with-raidforums-owner-omnipotent ↩
"United States of America v. Diogo Santos Coelho". justice.gov. Archived from the original on August 30, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1493606/ ↩