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Microsoft Uses U.S., U.K. Courts to Take RedVDS Cybercrime Market Offline

The move targets a $24‑a‑month VM service linked to BEC schemes, AI‑enhanced phishing, $40 million in U.S. fraud.

Overview

  • Microsoft unsealed civil actions in the Southern District of Florida and the U.K., enabling domain seizures that shut down the RedVDS marketplace and customer portal.
  • Europol and German authorities participated in the operation, with prosecutors in Frankfurt and Brandenburg state police seizing servers tied to the service.
  • Microsoft reports at least $40 million in U.S. losses since March 2025 and more than 191,000 Microsoft email accounts compromised across over 130,000 organizations.
  • RedVDS rented disposable Windows virtual machines for about $24 per month using unlicensed images, accelerating phishing and business email compromise, with over 9,000 real estate customers affected in Canada and Australia.
  • Named victims H2‑Pharma and Gatehouse Dock Condominium Association joined as co‑plaintiffs as investigators pursue attribution of operators tracked by Microsoft as Storm‑2470.