US authorities have taken down an online platform allegedly used by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to Americans’ bank accounts.

Visitors attempting to access web3adspanels.org are now met with a law enforcement seizure notice. Investigators say the site played a key role in SEO poisoning operations that targeted individuals by stealing their online banking credentials.

According to officials, criminals paid for premium placements on search engines, directing users to websites that appeared to belong to legitimate banks but were actually fraudulent. Unsuspecting users entered their login details, which were secretly captured and stored, while access to their real bank accounts never occurred.

The Justice Department explained that web3adspanels.org functioned as a centralized platform where stolen credentials could be stored, modified, and later used to attempt unauthorized access to bank accounts and initiate illegal money transfers. An FBI affidavit notes that at least 19 victims—including two businesses—across the US have been identified in connection with this specific scheme, though authorities believe it represents only a fraction of the broader account takeover issue.

Prosecutors linked approximately $28 million in attempted fraudulent transfers to the platform, with confirmed losses estimated at $14.6 million.

More broadly, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported receiving over 5,100 similar complaints since the beginning of the year, with total reported losses exceeding $262 million.

While announcing the takedown, the Justice Department did not explain how attackers were able to bypass stronger security measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). The IC3 also did not clarify this point in an advisory issued last month. However, authorities noted that such campaigns frequently rely on social engineering rather than simple phishing, persuading victims to voluntarily share their credentials and, critically, their MFA codes or one-time passwords.

Once access is obtained, cybercriminals typically move funds into accounts they control and then convert the money into cryptocurrencies, a tactic that complicates tracking across blockchain networks. In many cases, attackers also change victims’ banking passwords, effectively locking them out of their own accounts, the FBI said.

IC3 data shows that losses tied to electronic crime have steadily increased since 2020, with cyber-enabled fraud accounting for 83 percent of the total $16.6 billion in reported losses in 2024.