A Queens man and his teenage cohort from Rhode Island posed as a cop to access law enforcement data as part of a sick doxxing and extortion scheme, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Tuesday.
The duo belonged to an online group called "ViLE" that used the body of a hanging girl as its logo and threatened to post people's private information online if they didn't pay up, the feds allege.
The two suspects, Nicholas Ceraolo, 25, of Queens, and Sagar Singh, 19, used a police officer's stolen credentials to log into a federal law enforcement info portal in May, according to a criminal complaint.
The portal, which isn't named in the complaint, is "used to share intelligence from government databases with state and local law enforcement agencies," and "includes detailed, nonpublic records of narcotics and currency seizures, as well as law enforcement intelligence reports," the feds said.
The doxxing group used that info for nefarious purposes, prosecutors said.
Singh, who goes by the screen name "Weep," threatened to expose one victim on May 9, sending a text message with his target's social security, phone number and private info, prosecutors.
"You're gonna comply to [SIC] me if you don't want anything negative to happen to your parents. ... I have every detail involving your parents ... allowing me to do whatever I desire to them in malicious ways," he told the victim, according to the feds.
In another message, Singh told the victim that he had access to databases through the federal portal, warning, "I can request information on anyone in the US doesn't matter who, nobody is safe," the feds allege.
Singh's goal was the get the victim to sell their Instagram credentials, and pass the proceeds of the sale to him, according to the complaint.
Singh was the first to get the police officer's login info, and after giving it a test run on May 7, he gave it to Ceraolo, the feds allege.
"It worked," Ceraolo wrote to Singh, according to the feds, adding, "This is an [Federal Law Enforcement Agency] agent pretty sure . . . were all gonna get raided one of these days i swear."
Ceraolo, who goes by the names "Convict," "Ominous" and "Anon," then shared the login credentials with more members of "ViLE," and discussed how to use automated tools to "scrape" large amounts of data from the portal, the feds allege.
Ceraolo also posed as a Bangladeshi cop, using the officer's official account, to trick social media platforms and a facial recognition company into giving up information about users, with mixed success, according to the feds.
One platform was fooled by his February 2022 claim that he was seeking info on a user involved in "child extortion" and blackmail, but a second platform, which runs a popular online game, didn't fall for his ruse, according to the criminal complaint. Neither did the facial recognition company.
The online game platform tweeted about not being tricked, and Ceraolo sought revenge by trying to get private info on the company's administrators, the feds allege.
"I wanna hack these f----s for acting like their [sic] untouchable," he wrote a co-conspirator, musing that he could "easily get 6 figs" by selling the info on the dark web, the feds said.
Singh was arrested in Pawtucket Tuesday morning, and is slated to appear before a federal judge in Rhode Island before his case is moved to Brooklyn. Ceraolo remains at large.
"Singh and Ceraolo aptly belonged to a group called, as their crime was, 'Vile.' That conduct ends today," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Tuesday.
Ceraolo could face up to 20 years behind bars if he's convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while both men face five years for committing computer intrusions.
Singh's lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and attempts to reach Ceraolo's family were unsuccessful Tuesday.
