American and Dutch authorities include crypto-driven fake-ID market

The Dutch and American law enforcement have closed online fake -ID Marketplace Vereniftools, which sold false documentation for just $ 9 in Cryptocurrency.

According to A press release Published on Thursday, the Dutch Cybercrime Police was in control of two physical data servers in Amsterdam, while he also took control of 21 virtual servers.

They worked in collaboration with the FBI, which Seized two domains used by the Verenkools marketAs well as a promotional blog.

Both the FBI and the Identity Fraud and Document Center of Expertise in the Netherlands had conducted research into VerenTools, whereby the FBI found that the market had generated around $ 6.4 million in income.

Similarly, Dutch authorities estimate that Vereniftools had an annual turnover of approximately € 1.3 million (around $ 1.5 million), making it one of the largest providers of fraudulent identity documents internationally.

The market reportedly worked by obliging users to upload a passport photo and entering false data, which the operators of the site then used to generate a false ID. FBI agents were able to order fake driving permits for the state of New Mexico, paid for the falsified IDs using crypto -although specific coins were not identified.

Once delivered, fake -IDs are often used to bypass KYC, to bypass or commit fraud, whereby the police in Wales come across the Veriftools market during the process of a fraud investigation.

The Verfools URL now leads browsers to a Splash page, which announces that the website has been seized by Dutch and American law enforcement agencies.

“The removal of this market is an important step to protect the public against fraud and identity theft crime,” said Philip Russell, acting special agent charged with the FBI Albuquerque Division. “Together with our partners, we will continue to focus and dismantle the platforms on which criminals depend on, regardless of where they operate.”

In their press release, the Dutch police report that they will continue to investigate the data about the seized servers, which will use it in an attempt to find the Veriftools managers.

According to experts, the production and distribution of fake IDs has not only become large companies, but it is growing rapidly.

“Determining exact figures is difficult in view of the illegal nature of trade, but most estimates place the global fake -ID market somewhere in the billions of dollars,” said Kartik Venkatesh, worldwide head of innovation at identity technology company GBG.

Venkatesh told Decrypt That today’s fake IDs are much more advanced than the “rough” knock-offs of the past decades, with the help of industrial level machines and micrometer-thick lamining.

“Many include holograms, polycarbonate layers, barcodes that scan correctly, and UV-reactive ink, making them almost indistinguishable from real documents without specialized equipment,” he explained.

And what this leap has caused in quality is an increased question, which has submitted the conditions for a “flourishing” illegal market of aids and technologies, which too Including AI-generated IDs.

“The production is now smooth and international, with websites that look like professional E -commerce stores,” he said. “Buyers upload details, pay in cryptocurrency and receive falsification hidden in everyday items.”

Venkatesh even reports that some sellers even offer return policy, guarantees and guidelines on how to use the IDs convincingly.

From his viewpoint, the solution for growth in fake -ID marketplaces is to invest in advanced ID verification systems that help some companies and authorities to detect counterfeits.

“By laying document analysis, face biometry, detection of liveliness and behavioral signals,” he said, “they can recognize inconsistencies that are invisible to human inspection.”

He also suggests that digital IDs can play a role in playing in the longer term, because their cryptographic design makes them more difficult to forge, while they can immediately be verified with issuing authorities.

Although they also make selective disclosure possible, Venkatesh warned that digital identities will attract their own forms of abuse. He noted: “Synthetic IDs that are sewn together from real and fake data and deepfake biometry designed to mislead lifi checks, to charge theft if someone’s telephone or ID portionian is affected.”

That is why he argued that the future will stay in “balance” and layered checks.

“Digital IDs can be the bar higher for fraudsters,” he said, “but only in combination with multi -layered verification that can adapt to new attack vectors.”