A Fake Passport is Cheaper Than a Pizza. The FBI Shut Down an Online Supermarket for Fake Identities
Every 50th American could have been a fake...
Every 50th American could have been a fake...
The FBI and Dutch police conducted a joint operation that shut down a major online marketplace, VerifTools, which specialized in selling fake documents. The servers hosting the platform were seized in Amsterdam, and the domain veriftools.net now displays a seizure banner.
VerifTools was considered a significant player in the dark web segment: the platform offered fake driver's licenses and passports. These were used to bypass identity verification systems, commit bank fraud, carry out phishing schemes, fraudulently obtain social benefits, evade criminal prosecution, and register anonymously on services with KYC (Know Your Customer) rules. Another category of buyers was teenagers trying to bypass age restrictions.
According to the American investigation, initiated back in August 2022, the site offered fake IDs for all 50 U.S. states and several foreign countries for prices starting at nine dollars, with payment in cryptocurrency. The investigation began after a scheme was uncovered in which criminals used stolen personal data to access cryptocurrency accounts.
According to Dutch police estimates, VerifTools' turnover was at least 1.3 million euros, while the FBI links illegal revenue of about $6.4 million to this platform. Obtaining a document on the site was a simple procedure: a photo was uploaded, the required data was entered, and then the system generated an image of the finished ID.
As part of the operation, two physical and 21 virtual servers were seized. The entire infrastructure of the resource was copied and made available to the investigation. The identities of the VerifTools administrators remain unknown for now, but law enforcement agencies hope that analyzing the seized data will lead them to the organizers. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service states that future arrests are not ruled out.
If arrests occur, users of the fake documents could face up to six years in prison. The authorities emphasize that VerifTools is another example of how low-barrier online platforms make access to fake IDs almost as easy as uploading a photo to a social network.
