Europol and US seize website domains, luxury goods in $6bn

‘World’s largest botnet’ – spread through infected emails – taken down through coordinated police action among several countries

US authorities announced on Thursday that they had dismantled the “world’s largest botnet ever”, allegedly responsible for nearly $6bn in Covid insurance fraud.

The Department of Justice arrested a Chinese national, YunHe Wang, 35, and seized luxury watches, more than 20 properties and a Ferrari. The networks allegedly operated by Wang and others, dubbed “911 S5”, spread ransomware via infected emails from 2014 to 2022. Wang allegedly accrued a fortune of $99m by licensing his malware to other criminals. The network allegedly pulled in $5.9bn in fraudulent unemployment claims from Covid relief programs.