A ring of active programmers who distributed about 110,000 videos, including sex videos and nude photos filmed without others' consent, was sent to prosecutors in custody. When the government blocked access to their sites, they changed the addresses and continued operations by directing users to the new addresses through a separate "landing page," it was found.
On the 10th, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency's cybercrime unit said it had referred active programmer A and accomplice B to prosecutors under arrest on suspicion of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (distribution of illegal recordings for profit, etc.) and violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (distribution of illegal information).
From May last year to on the previous month, A and others are accused of posting about 110,000 illegal recordings and adult videos on sites they operated and taking in revenue by placing ads for illegal online gambling and prostitution brokerage sites.
The posts they distributed were said to include not only general adult videos but also many illegal recordings that cause serious sexual crime harm, such as secretly filmed sex videos and nude photos taken without the other party's consent.
According to the police investigation, programmer A used A's skills to build the site directly and oversaw overall operations. B was found to have recruited ads for illegal gambling sites and managed ad revenue and posts.
In particular, they were found to have bypassed government access blocks by hosting servers overseas and running a separate "landing page."
A landing page is a separate page that, instead of directly posting illegal content, provides the latest access address for the main site. When the government blocks the main site where illegal recordings are posted, they change the address and then post the new address on the landing page to induce users to connect.
They initially started with two sites, but to increase ad revenue they continuously expanded the sites, and at the time of their arrest they were found to be operating as many as 23. All of the sites are currently blocked.
According to the police, they placed about five to 10 banner ads on each site and collected ad fees, and were said to have amassed about 70 million won in criminal proceeds to date.
The police plan to track the flow of virtual assets received as ad fees and the rest of the criminal proceeds, while also continuing to investigate whether there are additional accomplices.