Three teenagers face ten years in prison for operating a "lookup", an illicit search engine that sells stolen personal data

They face a sentence of ten years in prison. Three 17-year-old young people "unknown to the courts" will be tried before the Paris children's court on January 14, 2027 for having administered a "lookup", an illicit search engine which resells personal data stolen during cyberattacks, the Paris prosecutor's office announced in a press release published Friday October 9.

The three teenagers are accused of having managed the Reacher platform (later renamed Stryxx), created in March 2026. It offered Internet users the opportunity to find personal information on any person present in its databases, “free of charge or via different paid subscription plans”. Reacher/Stryxx claimed “730 million lines” of personal data, “from various thefts” committed during cyberattacks, and having responded to “3.1 million requests”. This private data can then be used for many illicit purposes, from intimidation to identity theft to targeted burglary.

The day before, the Anti-Cybercrime Office (Ofac) announced the dismantling of this platform, following an investigation opened on May 15, 2026 after a report from the e-Enfance association. The creation, administration and use of these search engines (also called "searchers") are illegal within the European Union as long as they contain data obtained illicitly, as in one of the numerous data leaks that have hit France in recent months.