It's distinct in that these groups aren't isolated from each other, there's member overlap and subgroups splintering from each other due to trying to avoid authorities.
It's also distinct in the type of crimes. Sextortion involving young kids/creation and sharing of CSAM merging with extreme political beliefs and encouraging those beliefs, with a specific focus to target young kids particularly those vulnerable enough to not have parents immediately notice. The criminals are often also on the younger side, like 19 year olds leading sex cults[1].
"The Com" goes by other names due to these groups being in a lot of different regions under different monikers and subgroups. 764 network, cvlt network, harm nation, etc. All the same general type of crime and target groups.
Here's some resources warning people about them:
https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2024/08/rcmp-reminds-canadians-about...
https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/20...
[1] https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/sextortion-coms-inside-a-vile...
I had no idea this darkness existed. The unicorn riot piece is well researched; how awful - despicable all of it.
This is bullshit.
"The Com" is computer hacking like carding, Kerbs puts them as distinct "crime-focused chat communities" as others have posted - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/09/the-dark-nexus-between-h...
Kerbs had to go to effort to find overlap between the harm groups and "The Com"
There are groups that attack children and there are groups that attack these groups in "The Com", if you define "The Com" at a higher level.
764 kinda stared in Minecraft, call it the Minecraft community to be safe?
Whatever it is no one from the cybercrime community is suggesting the "The Com" from the article has anything to do with the harm groups.
What point of “there is a lot of overlap” is difficult to understand? These people are often in many of the same channels because of how easy it is to stay involved through the likes of discord. Krebs didn’t have to go through much effort and neither did the links I posted.
764 also splintered from a nazi group 09V. Don’t downplay them.
Side note, you might want to reassess some of your views that have you pushing the same sort of propaganda that these groups do.
> What point of “there is a lot of overlap” is difficult to understand?
The part where it would matter.
The "race realist" i.e. racist right likes to point out that there is a lot of overlap between certain racial groups and the criminal underclass. Statistically this is sort of true. Trying to use it to reason about any individual is logically known as the fallacy of division or ecological fallacy and colloquially known as "Nazi stuff". You may want to reassess your views that have you employing the same sort of guilt by association tactics that these groups do.
I am not a DOGE fan particularly and I am certainly very interested in whether this guy was a sextortionist or carder, but I'm not very interested in whether he was in a general scene with them.