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The FBI and Dutch police today said that they seized two domains and a blog tied to VerifTools, an international criminal marketplace that sold identity documents for as little as $9.
VerifTools was one of the largest online shops for fake driver’s licenses, passports, and other forms of ID. With these documents, criminals can assume new identities, get hired by tech companies in fake IT worker scams, or pull off digital identity and bank help-desk fraud. Teens can also use fake IDs to trick sales clerks into selling them alcohol, we’re told.
On August 27, the Rotterdam Police Cybercrime Team seized data from the VerifTools website’s servers at a data center in Amsterdam, according to the Dutch police, while the FBI pulled the platform offline.
VerifTools home page now – Click to enlarge
“The removal of this marketplace is a major step in protecting the public from fraud and identity theft crime,” Acting Special Agent in Charge Philip Russell of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office said in announcing the seizure.
The FBI began investigating VerifTools in August 2022 after discovering a conspiracy to use stolen identity information to access cryptocurrency accounts, according to the feds.
During the probe, undercover cops used the marketplace to generate and purchase counterfeit New Mexico driver’s licenses, which they paid for with cryptocurrency. Investigators ultimately determined that the marketplace sold fake ID documents for all 50 US states and multiple foreign countries.
The FBI identified the equivalent of about $6.4 million of illicit proceeds linked to VerifTools.
At the Amsterdam data center, Dutch police seized two physical servers and more than 21 virtual servers. “Police will further examine the data on the servers and determine whether the administrator and users can be identified,” the Rotterdam Police said.
In the Netherlands, forgery, false identification, and deploying counterfeit payment instruments each carry a maximum prison sentence of six years. ®
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