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Azerbaijan State Security Service exposes a cybercriminal group involved in the sale of prohibited information

14 July 2025 09:18 (UTC +04:00)

The State Security Service of Azerbaijan has exposed a cybercriminal group involved in the sale of prohibited information, APA reports.

A preventive detention measure has been chosen against citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Nihad Ahmad oglu Hajiyev, who is accused in a criminal case currently under investigation by the State Security Service (SSS), at the Sabail District Court of Baku. Nihad Hajiyev, who created and managed a “darknet”-type internet resource and was engaged in the sale of personal data and other information prohibited by law, was arrested as one of the members of a cybercriminal group exposed during operational-technical measures carried out by the SSS.

Together with his associates, he organized cyberattacks on “xeberoxu.az” and other information portals, seized control of these websites, altered the content of news articles, and illegally obtained users’ personal data by encouraging them to download malicious mobile applications such as “Çarxla Qazan.apk”, “Paypal.apk”, etc., which contained harmful code.

In addition, Nihad Hajiyev registered domain names similar to the official websites of several companies and institutions operating in the Republic of Azerbaijan (such as “Irshad Electronics”, “Baku Electronics”, “Xalq Bank”, etc.), created fake websites, presented them on social networks as authentic platforms, and massively collected users' personal data under the guise of discount campaigns.

One noteworthy aspect is that the group members used cyberattack tools known as “Call Spoofing,” which allow impersonation of any mobile number belonging to individuals or companies, to make deceptive calls. They also sent fake SMS messages on behalf of companies to trick people and organized the sale of such online services.

The court initially determined the duration of Nihad Hajiyev’s detention to be 3 months.